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@AuManufacuring news site has interviewed UNSW SMaRT Centre Director Prof Veena about SMaRT's circularity innovations ahead of the Industrial Transformation Australia 2025 Conference: Accelerating Industry 4.0.
The story and podcast focus on the science and business of "the unmaking" of end of life products so their materials can be used again for remanufacturing.
Speaking at the Industrial Transformation Australia on 22 July, Veena's talk "Harnessing the Potential of Recycled Materials - A Smart Vision for a Sustainable Future" will highlight that using innovations such as UNSW SMaRT Centre's recycling and MICROfactorieTM technologies that recover valuable materials from waste and reform them into new manufacturing feedstock and products through collaborators, are central to help achieve the sustainability needed for the future.
She will be joined on stage by Renew IT CEO James Lancaster who operates under licence to UNSW the first Plastics MICROfactorieTM outside of the SMaRT Centre.
Listen to the podcast and read the full story
Excerpt from Editor Brent Balinski's story:
(You can play the podcast on this webpage via the link below)
Like-for-like recycling, for example turning a PET bottle into another PET bottle, is a good outcome, believes Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla.
The inventor and founding Director of UNSW’s Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) is focussed elsewhere, though.
“When materials get more complex you can’t always assume that conventional solutions and conventional manufacturing will always apply,” she tells us.
“We can’t just assume ‘well we’ve already put this particular problematic material in the too-hard material [basket] and there’s nothing that can be done about it.’ That’s not good enough.”
Following her work inventing and commercialising Polymer Injection Technology or Green Steel – which substitutes a portion of coke used in steelmaking with recycled materials – Sahajwalla has devoted her energies to microfactory (styled MICROfactorie) technologies.
The concept, based on “microrecycling science” programs at SMaRT, has moved out of labs and is being used with commercial partners on various efforts to transform “problematic waste materials” into products including aerosol cans and acoustic panels.
year ago, Renew IT launched a MICROfactorie module at its Lane Cove site, which is turning hard plastics from e-waste into feedstock for 3D printing, a product that is routinely imported to Australia rather than made here.
The partnership between SMaRT and the IT asset management business will feature in a conversation between Sahajwalla and CEO of Renew IT, James Lancaster (pictured), at the Industrial Transformation Australia expo next week. (You can register to attend here.)
“End of life products are literally just products waiting to be remade into something else,” Sahajwalla says of her work with manufacturers and others.
“We expect a lot from the making part of our products. To me, that’s the science of making. But what we are really challenging ourselves is to say ‘what about the science of unmaking?’
“And if it’s the science of unmaking, and then remaking, and if that cycle were to continue over and over again where different kinds of material are diverted away from landfill and they’re used for remanufacturing, then to me, really what we are saying is we really shouldn’t be calling anything [waste.]”
In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations, published in partnership with Hannover Messe’s Industrial Transformation Australia event, Sahajwalla talks about working at “the exciting new frontier” of recycling, where Australian companies can contribute globally, and more.
Event website and registration
In a blog post for the event, Veena says:
"The most exciting opportunity I believe revolves around the alignment of recycling and manufacturing. This is about creating a whole new “remanufacturing” model where resources recovered from waste can directly become the feedstock of new products. There are emerging technologies that can reform various hard to recycle or complex wastes into new value-added products and manufacturing feedstock, and our various UNSW SMaRT Centre-designed technologies attest to this.
"Best known of these technologies is SMaRT’s Green SteelTM Polymer Injection Technology, which is well known for using millions of waste rubber tyres destined for landfill as an alternative source for partial replacement coke and coal (carbon) in electric arc furnace steel making. The next generation of Green SteelTM research now shows tyres are also effective and contain hydrogen which improves the efficiency of steel making. The Green Ceramics modules reform waste textiles and problematic glass, into a range of ceramics for the build environment, while the Plastics modules, which reform hard plastics coming from e-waste not being recycled, into filament for 3D printing and new manufacturing needs. We think this alignment of recycling and manufacturing is the greatest opportunity to shift the dial."
Organisers say:
Set for 22-24 July, 2025 at The Dome, Sydney Olympic Park, Industrial Transformation Australia is the premier platform for sparking innovation and strategic collaboration among manufacturers, technology providers, and thought leaders.
This event goes beyond traditional trade shows by catalysing the exchange of ideas and fostering network growth, all centred around the latest in automation, data exchange, and IoT technologies.
Industrial Transformation Australia is the trade show for Industry 4.0, representing the people and companies contributing to the coordinated and proactive approach to leveraging digital technologies, and creating step-change improvement in industrial operations.
But how did we get to Industry 4.0? Before 4.0, there was Industry 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, each shaping Industrial Transformation in its time and representing an enormous leap in the availability of industry-defining technologies throughout the supply chain and logistics sectors.
Industrial Transformation Australia is not just a trade show, it’s an arena of innovation and cutting-edge technologies that are shaping the future of Industry 4.0. This event assembles a diverse mix of insightful speakers and leading technology suppliers, all key players in driving the digital revolution in industrial sectors.