UNSW Sydney is now home to the new ARC Microrecyling Research Hub for battery and consumer wastes, which seeks to recover valuable materials found in Australia’s batteries and other complex wastes.
The Microrecyling Hub, directed by renowned UNSW Professor Veena Sahajwalla, is a five-year national program that will develop innovative technologies to recover the materials in batteries and other complex wastes not subject to conventional or widespread recycling.
Hosted by the UNSW Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre, the new Microrecyling Hub was established in collaboration with industry partners and researchers from six other universities around Australia, namely the University of Technology-Sydney, University of Sydney, Monash University, University of Wollongong, Queensland University of Technology, and Deakin University.
Through its waste recovery efforts, the new research facility is expected to help create national materials sustainability and accelerate efforts to reduce emissions and decarbonise for the future.
Professor Sahajwalla said “feedstock ready” materials do not need the costly processing of mined materials, which will usher in a new manufacturing era for Australia.
“Natural resources alone will not deliver the feedstock supply needed for our future needs, so we must develop a more sustainable approach, and the Microrecycling Hub aims to develop technologies enabling capability that aligns recycling and manufacturing right here in Australia,” Sahajwalla.
