Connecting SMaRT with communities on Australia Day

UNSW SMaRT Centre Director, Professor Veena spoke to community members in western Sydney about the importance of sustainable practices including innovative uses of waste as a resource in an Australia Day speech.

By connecting with communities at events like this, SMaRT continues to strengthen partnerships and drive meaningful conversations about sustainability, circular economy solutions and the role of local action in creating a better future for Australia. 

See Blacktown City Council story

Veena was earlier awarded an 2025 Australia Day Honour of being an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO).

founding Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research & Technology at UNSW, opens in a new window, has been recognised for her distinguished service to science as an engineer and inventor, sustainable materials research and technology and waste management.

“I am so honoured to have been considered for recognition in the Order of Australia. It means so much and reflects on the many people who have been part of my journey. The feeling of leading a scientific field is profound, but this sort of recognition is next level. This just motivates me even more,” Prof. Sahajwalla said.

“I speak to communities, governments and industries all the time, and if this award helps me to continue doing that and to motivate and inspire others, I am grateful for that. What drives me and the team at the UNSW SMaRT Centre is developing solutions for real world materials sustainability challenges that help deliver better social, environmental and economic outcomes.

“I thank all who have been part of my journey, and especially UNSW Sydney for enabling me to pursue my passion and dreams. Students and staff I’ve worked with have been so inspirational to me and many of them have become champions of the field of science we have been pioneering, and for me knowing there are others taking the passion forward is satisfying. On a personal side, I deeply thank my family for their understanding of my ongoing focus and drive, as well as my occasional crazy fixations on solving waste problems.”

She was one of a handful of UNSW academics to receive a 2025 award, with UNSW Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Attila Brungs congratulating the UNSW community who received awards.

“These honours are a testament to your remarkable achievements and contributions to the nation. Your dedication to advancing knowledge, equity, and innovation is inspiring, and we deeply thank you for your commitment to improving the lives of all Australians and drive to have a positive meaningful impact on the world.”

See the UNSW announcement

See the awards list on the Governor General's website

The following was provided in response to the Office of the Governor General:

• Tell us about yourself and what you do. 

As the founding Director of the Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre at the University of New South Wales, we pioneer the science of microrecycling and develop technology-based solutions to reform hard to recycle waste streams that are mostly destined for landfill into value-added products and feedstock for remanufacturing.

Because we understand these wastes at the molecular level, we develop science and engineering techniques to sustainably recover and reform valuable materials from no- or low-value wastes and help to truly create a circular economy and more sustainable future.

While I’ve jointly raised a family and lived most of my life here in Australia, I grew up in Mumbai and learned that there are many different ways in which we can show care, compassion and be innovative with the limited materials and resources around us. Instead of just tinkering at the edges of the waste problem, we need a complete shift in our mindset and more creative thinking.

Recycling the like-for-like reuse of a material such as paper or glass has a place, but many waste products are a lot more complex than bottles or old newspapers, and so we need to go well beyond conventional recycling. Our best-known innovations are Green Steel Polymer Injection Technology^TM which uses waste rubber tyres as a partial replacement for the coke and coal needed in electric arc furnace steel making, as well as our various modular MICROfactorie^TM Technologies that use different waste types to create products and feedstock for remanufacturing. We continue to advance our research and development for our various technologies in conjunction with our partners.

• What do you think has been the greatest impact of the work that you do?  

I, my team and many industry and community partners are all motivated to create real impact with our work, and we are seeing environmental, social and economic benefits from our efforts. We have industrialised various waste-to-product technologies and these help to create more sustainable outcomes, in addition to new jobs and opportunities.

Our main program of work is the ongoing development of our various technologies and MICROfactories^TM, and some of areas we are focussed on are tackling the huge electronic or e-waste problem. This complex waste streams contain many of the useful materials like metals and plastics needed for future electrification and decarbonisation efforts but are mostly simply discarded and thus wasted. We need a mindset around a new scientific paradigm which I call molecular circularity, where we can consider all materials within waste streams as a resource.

MICROfactories^TM are all about creating scalable recycling, fit for purpose circular solutions suitable for all locations including regional, rural and remote sites to empower communities with new supply chains. Many of the natural resources and materials needed for batteries and other technologies are becoming more environmentally challenging, and therefore recovering these materials from end-of-life innovative circular solutions will be crucial to future global efforts around sustainability.

• What motivates you to do what you do? What do you most enjoy about it? 

I really care and have a passion for environment, and see the waste challenge as being a crucial part of our global sustainability efforts. This part is often overlooked but many of us are deeply focussed on this challenge using science and engineering to pioneer new solutions.

When we talk about decarbonisation, people say, ‘well, Australia's a small country, how much impact can we really have?’ But we have clever science and engineering capability, and we can inspire others to come on the journey with us. To me, that’s one of the most important contribution we can make. We also need to advocate for new solutions, and to train and educate future generations of the importance of STEM(S) – science, technology, engineering, maths and sustainability as an underpinning principle.

The global push towards renewable energy and electrification hinges on the availability of metals and other critical materials. Using waste as a feedstock for remanufacturing offers a promising solution to these challenges, and using resources from waste batteries must be an important component in this effort. Our ARC Microrecycling of Batteries Research Hub is taking on this challenge.

By developing efficient methods to recover and recycle these materials from waste, we can move up the value chain by using these resources as remanufacturing feedstock for the products and materials needed for the future, thereby developing more secure and resilient supply chains.  I am motivated to bring my personal passion to pursue world leading science to create real impact and achieve a shared vision of sustainability.