CORE works with members and stakeholders on innovative solutions to challenging soil related issues. From enhancing agricultural soils to treating complex soil contamination issues, CORE develops solutions using methods and technologies involving bio-products tailor-made for the situation.

Our Circular Economy goals are to help with decontaminating waste through Case Studies from our Pilots to prove systems and innovations that help change habits in the workplace which will then ripple out to the home, while creating new industries, jobs and entrepreneurship in our region.

Reef Catchments is the Natural Resource Management (NRM) organisation for the Mackay Whitsunday Isaac region. We facilitate change and work for long-term solutions to sustain, protect, and improve our region’s natural resources and environment, both now and into the future.

What is Circular Economy?
We think it’s important to recognise that circular economy initiatives fall under the ‘sustainability’ umbrella, but not all sustainability initiatives are circular.

For the purpose of the Queensland Circular Economy (Industry-Research) program, initiatives supported should fit within the Queensland Waste Management and Resource Recovery Strategy’s definition of the circular economy where: products and materials keep circulating within the economy at their highest value for as long as possible, through reuse, recycling, remanufacturing, delivering products as services, and sharing. Also for inclusion are initiatives which address avoiding the waste of products and materials.

In a practical sense that means the principal aim of initiatives or proposals will be around addressing waste and retaining value of materials and products; and any water and energy efficiency benefits will be seen as a bonus.

We are looking for those initiatives that will contribute to Queensland being a zero-waste society by reducing material and products going to landfill.

Gulf Savannah NRM is a natural resource management organisation delivering projects in Queensland's Northern Gulf region to support sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, and healthy landscapes and waterways.

Climate-KIC Australia orchestrates collaborative efforts to deliver connected and coordinated climate action. We work across multiple levers of change, including technology, business models, markets, finance and investment, policy and regulation, knowledge and skills, organisational culture and ways of working.

Organic waste makes up around half of what Queenslanders throw away each week in their kerbside waste (red lid) bin. Diverting organic material from landfill presents numerous environmental and economic benefits, ranging from significant landfill methane emissions reduction to the generation of a value-added product.

The Queensland Government supported Townsville City, Rockhampton Regional and Lockyer Valley Regional Councils to undertake the trials.

As part of the trial, each council provided an additional bin to a sample of households to test collection frequencies, equipment types and community engagement methods.

The trials successfully diverted hundreds of tonnes of organic waste from landfill. The information gathered from the trials is being used by the Queensland Government and councils to assess the suitably of ongoing FOGO collections in Queensland.

The trials were made possible due to the dedicated waste management teams in the local governments who have been on the ground every day ensuring that their communities embrace new ways of managing their waste.

Developing a Business Case Method
Dr Ian Dover is at the helm of this project, which begins with a comprehensive board-style workshop on October 23rd in Brisbane CBD. The workshop will review existing economic, social, environmental, and governance models for post-mining land-use options, incorporating fresh insights from expert stakeholders to craft a draft business case methodology for application across Queensland regional sites.

The initial workshop phase has secured funding from enviroMETS, and we are actively seeking full funding from other stakeholders. This phase will:
• Distil viable options from site and regional characterization.
• Identify the net value uplift (in dollars) of mineral resources, new commercial opportunities, social benefits, environmental advantages, and cultural enrichment options.
• Standardize a format to make the 'authorization process' comparable and efficient.
• Test a 'practitioner toolkit' with five pre-feasibility regional pilot site business cases.

This project will take the insights gained from LHP1 and LHP2 and develop them into investible business cases for new PMLU solutions. These solutions will support improved environmental, social, and governance (ESG) outcomes for specific sites across Queensland, making it our third Lighthouse Project.

We are heartened by the overwhelming support from the community for our structured approach to establish several pilot/test site facilities in Queensland. These sites will allow stakeholders to discover and validate innovative new economic purposes.

Progress so far? Thanks to the enthusiastic participation of LHP1 and LHP2 attendees, we are gaining interest from government bodies, communities, mining companies, METS suppliers, and other industry sectors. Initiatives for scoping and funding have already begun.

Mapping the Regulatory Environment
Led by Prof Brett Heyward, this project is on a mission to gain a practical understanding of Queensland's regulatory framework and industry practices, and how they impact the economic transformation of mining-affected land and communities. This fully funded initiative will:
• Identify and map regulatory pathways and industry practices posing challenges to repurposing scenarios.
• Uncover opportunities for establishing pilot/trial sites.
• Gather insights from international experiences with innovative post-mining land use.
• Provide recommendations for solutions to address these challenges.
• Extend industry and regulator support to establish an enabling environment for innovative post-mining land use.
Where are we now? We've completed numerous stakeholder meetings, including a workshop with industry and regulatory participants that revealed a multitude of factors influencing the feasibility of post-mining land use opportunities. Our research team has also kicked off several case studies covering various mining types and PMLU options, all aimed at further enriching our project findings.

Solutions that enable the cost-effective recovery of secondary minerals from mining waste can unlock valuable critical and strategic mineral resources and may offset the costs of mine rehabilitation activities.

Recognising the potential value of these assets, Geoscience Australia recently launched an online Atlas of Mine Waste to provide information about mine tailings, waste rock, and other mining waste stockpiles in Australia.56

Cost-effective solutions that support secondary mineral extraction from waste streams such as tailings, wastewater, and waste rock stockpiles present an opportunity to improve closure outcomes. Consultations have noted that economic recovery opportunities are present in legacy sites where less efficient extractive processes have left high concentrations of target minerals in waste.

Seeing waste as a resource and changing our LIFESTYLE is two important habits we can all do to help launch the Circular Economy in FNQ.

THIS CHANGE IS ACTUALLY BETTER FOR US AND BETTER FOR THE PLANET. It's full of opportunities including new industries that will develop effective ways of reusing our waste and the beauty of that is, it actually saves existing business models MONEY. Saving it and making it.

Our part in the piece of the puzzle is to connect the dots of passionate sustainable ambassadors in science, business and society to help us bring everyone along in a change that is good for the planet and good for the people.

If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions globally behind the USA & China. In Australia, we waste roughly 7.3 million tonnes of food costing over $20 billion per year. With 25% of all water used in agriculture going into food production, that’s one quarter of our usable water resource discarded. Another resource we cannot afford to abuse.

The Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan guides how industry, government and the community work together to improve the quality of water flowing to the Great Barrier Reef. Although the current plan was originally to 2022, it does not expire and continues to remain in place until it is replaced by a new plan.

The plan builds on 15 years of efforts by governments at all levels working in partnership with landholders, natural resource managers, industry, research and conservation groups through successive Reef Water Quality Protection Plans.

It addresses all land-based sources of water pollution including run-off from urban, industrial and public lands; while recognising the majority of pollution comes from agricultural activities. It includes social, cultural and economic values for the first time.

Across the city there are many actors and projects working to reorient power, materials, resources and knowledges in service to the regeneration of our city. Yet we still have a long way to go to shift extractive and accumulated capital and transition our policy and politics towards a more equitable and long term view. Our ways of collaborating, distributing resources and harnessing the collective intelligences of our place are not set up well to accelerate these pockets of potential.

Regen Melbourne’s wildly ambitious goals are our contribution to this transition. They seek to radically increase our ambition and to deepen our collective systemic impact.

Mine rehabilitation is the return of disturbed land to a safe, stable, non-polluting condition that supports a post-mining land use (PMLU). In Queensland, grazing and native ecosystems are the most commonly proposed PMLUs for rehabilitated land. However, there are a range of other PMLUs, as well as post-rehabilitation opportunities for future landholders, that could be explored to maximise social, economic and environmental outcomes from rehabilitation in Queensland.

Repurposing mineral waste may reduce the burden of waste management and generate cost-effective products. Converted waste products can support mine rehabilitation processes. For example, a common practice of waste repurposing is the co-disposal of tailings and waste rock to create physically stable mixtures to backfill mining voids.

Converted waste products can also support other industries, such as agriculture, construction, and manufacturing. Technical solutions can convert mineral waste into neutral and stable products depending on mineralogy.

Ideally, solutions will align with circular economy principles and generate waste-derived products to meet local demand such as the production of construction materials for local infrastructure.

CORE works with members and stakeholders on innovative solutions to challenging soil related issues. From enhancing agricultural soils to treating complex soil contamination issues, CORE develops solutions using methods and technologies involving bio-products tailor-made for the situation.

Melbourne’s waterways vary greatly in condition: the more natural areas upstream are generally healthier than those downstream, due to the impacts of urban development.

The good news is that compared to other major cities, our waterways are in good health overall. The Yarra River has greatly improved since the 1970s – when it was a dumping ground for industrial waste and sewage – and pollution levels have not significantly changed despite Melbourne’s rapid growth. This is a big achievement, as every new driveway and pavement increases the amount of stormwater that runs off into our rivers and creeks, carrying litter and pollutants with it.

Water quality an important condition that supports both environmental and social values. We sample water at over 100 monitoring sites to assess any changes over time, testing for a range of indicators including:

water temperature
dissolved oxygen
salinity (salt levels)
pH level (acidity or alkalinity)
nutrients (forms of nitrogen and phosphorus)
faecal contamination (E. coli)
metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc)
In summer we also test key recreational sites weekly for E. coli and blue-green algae, which can cause skin irritation or illnesses for people and pets that come into contact with the river. Our monitoring results are used to calculate the EPA’s Yarra Watch forecasts, with a summary also available in the EPA’s annual report cards.

Our data is also shared with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, who audits any changes to our monitoring network and sets policies and objectives for improving river health. It can be downloaded from their Water Measurement Information System.

Traditionally known as the Birrarung, meaning 'rivers of mist', the river was once rich with fish, eels and birds' eggs, making it a popular meeting point for Aboriginal people. Red gum trees on the banks of the Birrarung were used to build canoes, allowing men to fish and travel down the river.

Making the Birrarung swimmable again is so much more than just swimming. We need to reorient our city to recognise our main waterway, as a living entity, as a place inextricably linked to health and biodiversity.

Effective water infrastructure underpins the livelihoods of regional Australia and supports and sustains communities around the nation. It helps to grow the food, livestock and crops essential to our everyday living. It also generates jobs and injects billions of dollars into regions and the broader Australian economy each year.

Water is one of our most important resources and we must make sure it is sustainable, reliable, and resilient to drought and a changing climate.

Australia’s variable rainfall, streamflow and landscape conditions create water supply challenges. This, along with the demands of agriculture and growing urban populations, and climate change means we face frequent water challenges.

Our projects also help farmers access a more constant supply of water, which eases the pressure on our natural surface and ground water systems. This allows ecosystems that rely on these systems to flourish.