Circular mapping the circular economy ecosystem of Victoria

Research leads

Professor Usha Iyer-Raniga, Director, IC3P and VCA
Dr. Akvan Gajanayake, Research Fellow, IC3P

Background

The Victoria State Government has embarked on transitioning to a Circular Economy (CE) and have set up policies and agencies dedicated for this purpose.

The Victorian Circular Activator (VCA) was funded by the government to increase collaboration between researchers, practitioners and regulators within the CE landscape.

The RMIT research project “Circular mapping the Circular Economy ecosystem of Victoria” set the foundation for understanding the current ecosystem between these stakeholders and the roles they play towards a circular transition.

Research findings

The research included a survey of over 200 businesses in Victoria, interviews with 23 key stakeholders and a focus group session with 20 government and industry representatives.

The research showed that the current CE policies focus on the management of solid waste with key targets being recycling and landfill diversion rates.

The infrastructure sector is a key driver for the use of recycled materials in new projects. The business survey showed that CE practices within firms were motivated by ethical and moral considerations, although such actions may not be taken if the financial costs exceed the financial benefits.

From an ecosystem perspective, government regulations were considered as a key enabler to a circular transition, while the lack of clear guidelines and standards were a barrier.

Standards and guidelines were seen to be vital, given the increasing role the engineering and infrastructure sectors play within the ecosystem.

The research also showed that the understanding of CE among the wider industry community was low, with CE being understood as an advanced approach to managing solid waste. This aspect was exacerbated by CE being driven at a state-level by organisations in the Environmental and Infrastructure areas, leading to a lack of trans-disciplinarity, which is required for a systemic change. The buy-in from some primary industries such as mining and forestry and tertiary industries such as financial and insurance services were lacking within the ecosystem.

Causal loop diagram

The CE ecosystem was visually represented through a Causal Loop Diagram (Fig 1), which was validated through a focus group session. The CLD illustrated a reinforcing feedback loop within the system.

Improving access to CE related data and developing CE measurement metrics was identified as appropriate intervention strategies within this feedback loop.

Fig 1: Causal Loop Diagram of the CE landscape of Victoria

COVID-19 was identified as a shock to the system, which had a negative impact on the move towards circularity. Changes in consumption patterns led to increases in contamination of municipal waste and was identified as a factor contributing to illegal dumping. COVID also had impacts on supply chains, which sometimes resulted in less circular practices as manufacturers had to rely on whatever materials they could find to substitute materials due to supply chain problems. This highlighted that the system was not mature enough to be resilient to external shocks to the system and gravitated towards a more linear economy in such situations.

It is recommended that a whole-of-life approach, which includes extraction, production and import of goods need to be considered, without focusing solely on the disposal stage of industrial processes if a transition to CE is to be achieved.

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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.

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Circular mapping the circular economy ecosystem of Victoria