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Research

At the core of what the Solving Plastic Waste CRC (SPW CRC) does is to bring the research sector in Australia together with industry, government, not-for-profit and other organisations to solve major plastic waste problems and provide an evidence base for new innovations for the sector.

Industry has focused key aspects of the CRC’s activities on the creation of a circular economy for polyolefins (polyethylene, PE; and polypropylene, PP). They represent 43% of the plastics consumed in Australia and are over-represented in plastic waste streams and pollution since they are widely used in products with a short useful life, ending up in landfill.

The SPW CRC and its partners are finding solutions for some difficult to recycle products containing PE, soft plastics, single-use medical products, and agricultural films.

Our research programs

Through collaboration with our Partners and other stakeholders, the SPW CRC will assist in progressing the following long-term goals for Australia:

  • Upgrade the properties of high-volume plastic waste streams
  • Increase mechanical recycling of end-of-life plastics
  • Enable a circular economy for plastics
  • Reduce the transmission of microplastics to soils.

All research conducted with our Partners in the SPW CRC falls under the following four Research Programs.

RP1

Materials and design – to reduce products’ environmental impact

Materials and design – to reduce products’ environmental impact

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.

Key areas of focus:

  1. Developing user-centric co-design frameworks
  2. Redesigning high plastic waste products at end of life
  3. Developing improved plastic formulations enabling easier separation and recyclability
  4. Microbial production of bio-derived polymers that are compostable
  5. Developing improved bio-sourced fully compostable plastics for single-use applications.

 

RP2

Maximising the recovery and value of end-of-life plastics

Maximising the recovery and value of end-of-life plastics

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.

Key areas of focus:

  1. Engagement and behaviour change in urban and regional communities
  2. Enhance sorting of post-consumer plastics
  3. Innovative mechanical recycling processes and products
  4. Optimising chemical recycling processes
  5. Pyrolysis of plastic waste to produce energy and char

RP3

Implementing a circular economy for plastics in Australia

Implementing a circular economy for plastics in Australia

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.

Key areas of focus:

  1. Developing a circular economy vision
  2. Creating circular business models and markets
  3. Aligning policy, regulation and industry practice
  4. Designing tools to guide and verify a carbon neutral and circular plastics economy.

RP4

Mitigating the risk of microplastics in agricultural soils

Mitigating the risk of microplastics in agricultural soils

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.

Key areas of focus:

  1. Devising standard protocols for the collection, isolation, quantification and characterisation of microplastics from soils
  2. Developing a database regarding the sources and fate of microplastics and their interactions with microbes, food crops and livestock in Australian agriculture
  3. Determining the impact and health risk of microplastic pollution on humans and livestock
  4. Developing electrochemical, physical and biological approaches to destroy microplastics
  5. Assessing the impact of microplastics on the mobility and bioavailability of environmentally persistent and potentially hazardous pollutants in agricultural soils.

Our research projects

The Solving Plastic Waste CRC was established in July 2024 and is proud to have initiated many of the inaugural research projects across its Research Programs. Learn more about our current research projects.

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Collaborating with us

The Solving Plastic Waste CRC is looking for more organisations to partner with us through research.  Learn more about the ways to collaborate with the CRC.

Partner with us

Education & Training Program

The Solving Plastic Waste CRC (SPW CRC) prides itself on offering a cutting-edge Education & Training Program, offering a unique, hands-on Industry Doctoral Program for its PhD students and postdoctoral research fellows.

Education & Training Program

Learn more about our dynamic PhD Program and unique Microcredential Program.

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Positions Available

See current research and PhD positions currently being advertised.

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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.