The Solving Plastic Waste CRC (SPW CRC) was established in July 2024 as a 10-year cooperative research centre to assist in solving Australia’s plastic waste problem by enhancing end-user driven collaboration which addresses the current challenges across the entire plastics value chain.
Plastics are essential for producing many products used across most sectors of the global economy. In Australia, each year an additional 158 kg per person is used, with only 12% being recycled and 84% going to landfill.
The SPW CRC’s core role is to bring together the research sector, industry, governments and not-for-profits along the entire value chain to conduct collaborative research that will help to transform the way plastic products are designed, manufactured, used, recovered and recycled in Australia. The CRC is also focussed on researching how microplastic soil pollution can be remediated in Australia.
The SPW CRC will partner with key stakeholders to assist in accelerating Australia’s progress towards its targets of eliminating plastic pollution, establishing a circular and climate neutral economy for plastics and growing a competitive, sustainable advanced manufacturing sector.
Through collaboration with our Partners and other stakeholders, the SPW CRC will assist in progressing the following long-term goals for Australia:
Our Partners in the CRC span the entire plastics value chain and include: plastic manufacturers, plastic processors, recycling companies, consultants, public good organisations, relevant industry associations, local councils and state government departments.
The SPW CRC conducts its research activities under four Research Programs and upskills its PhD student and postdoctoral research fellow cohort under its Education & Training Program.
Research Program 1 (RP1) will develop plastic compositions that are more easily recycled or composted, and product designs which eliminate their unnecessary use, enable their reuse, avoid problematic plastics and material complexity and increase recycled content.
Research Program 2 (RP2) will increase the recovery, sorting and recycling of plastics, maximising the value of the recyclates and expanding the markets for products that contain them. It will also enhance technologies for energy recovery from plastic waste.
Research Program 3 (RP3) will scale the delivery of a carbon neutral circular economy for plastics by developing circular business models and markets, evidence-based policy advice and globally-informed strategies, underpinned by a robust evidence base for industry decision-making.
Research Program 4 (RP4) will develop standardised methods to determine the sources, fate, and dispersion of microplastics in Australia’s agricultural soils, examine the long-term risks to human and environmental health and provide effective mitigation strategies to reduce the transmission of microplastics to Australian soils.
The Education & Training (E&T) Program is an integral component of the SPW CRC, enabled by a collaborative network of research partners across Australia, and a cross-section of industry partners that span the entire plastics value chain.
Industry Doctoral Program (PhD Program)
At the core of the E&T Program is a unique industry focused skills program aimed at developing the capabilities of PhD graduates and postdoctoral fellows to operate across the research-practice boundary. The Industry Doctoral Program will produce graduates able to access career pathways across the circular economy for plastics, in industry, research laboratories, or in academia while also providing postdoctoral fellows with enhanced and well-rounded industry engagement experience and skills.
Microcredential Program
The SPW CRC develop a suite of microcredential (short) courses for industry aimed at building a deeper understanding of the upstream and downstream challenges and opportunities to develop solutions for plastic waste.
The SPW CRC is the first CRC to develop and offer for our Partners and the wider community a comprehensive suite of Microcredential (short) courses, both informed by the research conducted through the CRC and developed with our stakeholders.
The SPW CRC will keep our Partners and the wider community up-to-date with news and events related to the activities of the CRC and the plastics sector and will commence hosting monthly seminars.
The Solving Plastic Waste CRC is looking for talented, highly skilled PhD and postdoctoral research fellow candidates to undertake its research activiews. You can learn more about the PhD and postdoctoral research positions currently available in the SPW CRC by visiting the pages below.
See PhD and research positions currently being advertised.
Learn more about our dynamic PhD program and our scholarships.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians across all the lands on which we live and work, and we pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We recognise that these lands and waters have always been places of teaching, research and learning.
PhD Scholarships
PhD Expression of Interest
Microcredentials