The University of Tasmania (UTAS) is a sustainability-focused university. Its leadership in sustainability has been recognised by being the first STARS Gold rated university in Australasia and by being ranked 1st in the world – for the second year running –  in SDG13 Climate Action by the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, and #5 overall for its performance against the 17 SDGs in 2023.  Delivering circular economy outcomes has been central to this success. Building on the successes of various programs and pilots, our UTAS Waste Minimisation Action Plan, based on the 10 R’s for circularity, includes a target of reducing waste to landfill by 25% per Equivalent Fulltime Student Load by 2025. Supporting the value of setting a firm target, through the efforts described below and as reported as part of our Climate Active carbon neutral certification, in 2022 UTAS diverted 706 tonnes from landfill (25% of our waste), including 165 t (6%) of organics and 544 t of recycling (19%).

Our circularity approach includes:

Facilities and Operations

• Sustainability and circularity are included as key considerations in the University’s Procurement Policy and Sustainable Procurement Guide that delivers a shift from price and quality criteria only to incorporating triple bottom line outcomes to purchasing goods services, utilities and works. Priorities outlined when commencing the procurement process are:
  • Use less (buy only what you need) and minimise packaging.
  • Buy local (reduce transport from manufacturer to you).
  • Choose items that can be repaired and reused instead of single use.
  • Choose items that can be recycled at end-of-life or are under a manufacturer’s product stewardship program.
• With over $800m committed to developing new campuses across the state over a 10-year period, the positive impact of a focus on sustainable development and a circularity mindset is clear. A zero-waste circular economy focus is named up in our strategies guiding campus and building design and construction (e.g., Southern Future Urban Design Framework and Masterplan, see pp29-30 in downloadable document). Already well into delivery stage at our northern campus redevelopments, circular economy highlights include:
  • Decommissioned Queensland gas pipeline (366 piles x 18 m, or 6.5 km) repurposed as pilings for three new builds.
  • Reuse of 13 steel desk frames to create the shelving in the glasshouse at Inveresk. The cost saving (compared to having custom shelves made up) was around $3000.
  • Use of Reconophalt asphalt for new carparks in Launceston and Burnie campuses that has diverted over 900,000 plastic bags and 23,000 toner cartridges from landfill and the product uses reclaimed asphalt and aggregate and sand from street sweepings and hydro-excavation materials.
  • Interface® carpets used throughout with fully recycled content and recyclable.
  • Building designs focused on ‘de-constructability’ for materials re-use in the future when buildings decommissioned.
• Our Re-Use Program started in 2016 with furniture and has since expanded in number and types of items being relocated within the University or donated to local charities (e.g., stationery, IT equipment). The Re-Use Program has avoided a substantial amount of waste (>90 t to early June 2023), delivered significant savings (>$1.4m) and avoided emissions (>239 t CO₂e). With all the transitions, transformations, and decanting of furniture between campuses and buildings, the Re-Use Program has been and will continue to be key in providing literal truckloads of furniture for teaching and office spaces across all our Tasmanian campuses, as well as providing an avenue to re-home any surplus furniture no longer needed through donations and dis-assembly for recyclable components as a last resort.
• Since late 2019, 21 recycling walls have been deployed across all our Tasmanian campuses to enable staff and students to deposit those hard to recycle items not collected through the standard co-mingled streams and to encourage participation in the circular economy. Finding and using the walls is enabled through the provision of an online interactive map and users guide. Items like toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes, batteries, printer cartridges, pens and texters, blister pack pill packaging, small e-waste items and mobile phones are just some of the recycling streams collected and forwarded to local and mainland-based recyclers. The items get turned into new items such as outdoor and garden furniture, alternative road and pavement materials and even recycled stationery. The recycling walls make visible our commitment towards a zero-waste society and a circular economy. Since rollout, the recycling walls have diverted over 1.2 tonnes from landfill. Most of the recycling walls were made from old filing cabinets sourced from the Re-Use Program. These ‘DIY’ recycling walls have custom graphics on all sides to provide information about where the materials go, how they are recycled and into what sorts of products.
• Sustainability with a circular economy focus is also embedded in the Asset Management Procedure and the Clean out and Disposal Process Guide (latest versions of both approved in 2022). The University recognised a need for a tool to help staff sustainably deal with redundant items in a clean-up process. This guide fills a gap to enhance the outcomes of clean-up activities. The guide provides simple to follow step-by-step processes on options to help achieve improved benefits through re-use, donation, recycling, etc. to minimise waste to landfill and maximise value to the University and supported organisations. The first draft was developed in consultation with College of Science and Engineering staff to ensure sustainable outcomes during a major cleanout in 2020.
• Our ‘bin rationalisation program’ was rolled out across all campuses by mid-2022 that included centralised bin sets, new signage, collection of food organics from all tea rooms, with the collected materials commercially composted rather than landfilled, and removal of under desk bins to address contamination issues and reduce the number of plastic bags used.
• Installing an in-vessel aerobic composter at our new Inveresk campus in August 2022 allowed processing of over 8.5 tonnes of materials to produce about 12 cubic metres or 5 tonnes of compost (compost having a higher weight per volume ratio than most inputs apart from coffee grounds). The composter takes materials from on-site cafes, student accommodation (each student has access to a ‘compost caddy’ to support this) and the extensive community gardens on the site. The resulting compost is used in the gardens and given away to site volunteers for home gardens.
• To improve services, save money and reduce emissions, skip bin sensors were temporarily installed in 2021 to gather data on fullness and contamination.  This resulted in changes to collection schedules that has saved over $5000/month. A waste hub to reduce the number of skip bins and increase efficiencies is planned for Newnham Campus in 2023.
• All onsite catering contracts require use of commercially compostable packaging since 2021, which was a key initiative of the Plastics Minimisation Working Group of the Sustainability Committee.
• 35 abandoned bikes were collected in 2022, made road worthy through a partnership program with the Launceston Big Picture School, and donated to local students, demonstrating repair first principles of circularity.
• Five on campus cafes across the state have keg milk from The Udder Way. This has significantly reduced their recycling needs as completely avoids single use milk bottles as the kegs are cleaned and refilled.
• Closing the loop is important as exemplified in our Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS) reporting for circular economy categories, such as a 98% purchase of office paper that is 100% recycled content.

Student Experience and Engagement

• Students are directly involved in a wide range of circular economy-related projects through the Sustainability Integration Program for Students (SIPS). Since 2017, 113 students have undertaken projects focused on elements of a circular economy approach that have directly impacted on policy, procedure, programs, and projects. SIPS students undertook research to design and initiate the recycling wall program, verified the Re-Use program calculations for the Australian context as the program was developed in the United Kingdom, undertook auditing to calibrate the new bin sensors to ensure data accuracy and collected pre and post waste volume data to measure bin rationalisation program impact.
• Through waste related SIPS projects, students consult, seek advice and network with a wide range of external waste partner organisations in Tasmania including Replas, Northern Tasmanian Waste Management Group, Hydro Tasmania and Hobart Airport, and local councils including Hobart and Burnie.
• Waste audits with SIPS students have included TIA (Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture) labs and staff offices at Cradle Coast campus, Tasmanian University Student Association (TUSA) events at various campuses, external skip bins at Newnham campus, tea room waste at Sandy Bay campus, food waste from on campus cafes and Student Accommodation Newnham.
• Our waste data reporting is informed by waste audits undertaken by Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) students over consecutive years.
• Students have worked with the Sustainability and Student Living teams across consecutive years to reduce waste to landfill through encouraging donations and recycling during the end of year students’ move-out period.
• To reduce food waste to landfill, students at the Atrium Apartments (Burnie Campus), Hobart City Apartments (Hobart CBD Campus) and at Sandy Bay Campus apartments have access to either compost bins or worm farms. Across the sites there is one compost bin, two hot compost bays and ten worm farms. All are managed by students with support from on-site Student Living or academic staff mentors. Current and alumni SIPS students were involved in the research and design of these composting projects.
• TUSA officers and staff at our northern campus created the TUSA op shop, where students and staff donate kitchen ware and other household items to be available to other students to avoid buying new.
• Student projects have also focused on research waste, including diverting hundreds of kilograms of fish from landfill at the Taroona campus experimental fish facility and a review of sustainable lab programs at other universities with recommendations and opportunities shared with lab managers.
• The Green Impact Program for staff engagement started in 2018 and was expanded to include student teams in 2020. A bespoke student program started in 2021, with waste reduction and circularity being a key focus. UTAS staff and students have won three Australasian Green Impact champion awards, with waste reduction typically featuring on their applications. For example, a recent staff winner, who as part of their role hosts regular lunches for students, enables a significant reduction in waste to landfill by providing reusable crockery for students and staff at events, as well as for day-to-day use on campus that people can borrow and bring back. A recent student winner donates time to wiping excess University laptops for student donation and is a founding member of the UTAS students’ Zero Waste Society.

Learning, Teaching and Research

UTAS has a strong record in environmental research that addresses local and global issues. UTAS is a core member of the Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub (SCWH) that is one of four research Hubs as part of the Australian Government’s National Environmental Science Program (NESP2). The SCWH is a 7-year, multi-disciplinary and multi-institution initiative delivering innovative sustainability technologies, knowledge products and services for urban and regional communities and the waste management sector. The Hub’s solutions will enable the transitioning of production systems, investment, and consumer behaviour towards a circular economy.

Over the past few years, the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (part of UTAS) researchers have been working with True South Seafoods to research the potential of turning invasive sea urchin carcasses into a valuable fertiliser for home and agricultural use. Until UTAS became involved, following roe extraction the carcasses were landfilled. However, this project demonstrated that if ground up and dried, urchin fertiliser is created that boosts plant growth and adds important trace elements to soil. Just as importantly, turning the urchins into fertiliser adds additional value and ensure that 100% of the creature’s biomass is utilised effectively compared to just the 5% when only roe extraction occurs. The product is being used in the University’s community food gardens as well.