Circular economy opportunities

Case Study

CIRCULAR ECONOMY OPPORTUNITIES ANALYSIS FOR THE VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT

Victoria’s waste management and resource recovery systems are under significant strain. There is a clear and urgent need for Victoria to begin its transition towards a circular economy, and to do this we need to nurture the market for recycled materials. The Victorian government, through its procurement of infrastructure, goods and services, can support the recycling sector and help Victoria to transition towards a circular economy and realise the full value of recovered resources.

Sustainability Victoria (SV) has committed to assist government buyers to maximise the use of recycled content where appropriate. To this end, SV engaged Point Advisory to undertake an analysis of the State’s construction expenditure to identify opportunities to create demand for recycled material in building and infrastructure projects. The analysis examined government procurement processes, as well as best practice in, opportunities for, and barriers to encouraging the uptake of construction materials that contain recycled content.

The project combined extensive desktop research, stakeholder engagement and quantitative analysis to produce a database to allow SV to examine the potential volumes and values of recycled material flows that could be generated from the State’s annual spend on infrastructure and building. Point Advisory proposed an Action Plan that reflects the complexity of the problems faced by Victoria’s waste and resource recovery sector. The Action Plan addresses the five key aspects of the problem: physical, budget, policy setting, agency processes, and support & confidence. For each aspect, a vision of an ideal future situation was expressed, and short-term and long-term recommendations were provided.

Please contact Ben Sichlau, Principal at Point Advisory, to learn more about this project.