‘Nothing should be classified as waste': crisis is opportunity for Veena Sahajwalla.

Veena Sahajwalla has a solution for the waste crisis. While for most people the ever-growing mountains of rubbish stockpiled around the world seems like an overwhelming problem, the materials scientist and engineer sees the crisis as an opportunity that could help us to rethink the way we make and dispose of everything in our lives.

 Veena Sahajwalla and her team at UNSW have been
 working on a manufacturing process to create building
 materials from old textiles, paper and glass.

Take textiles. Australians send around 88% of textiles to landfill, with around 6,000kg of clothing dumped every 10 minutes. Earlier this year, there was a nationwide clearing-out flurry, leading to charity shops being inundated with unwanted goods. Most were destined for landfill.

Read the story from The Guardian by Alexandra Spring - “‘Nothing should be classified as waste': crisis is opportunity for Veena Sahajwalla.”

(Veena Sahajwalla was one of a trio of specialists to speak at a Slap Tomorrow forum in Shepparton in 2013 - “Climate Change: A wake-up call” - Robert McLean)

Biofuel discovery: start-up company breathes new life into old tyres

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The idea that old tyres could be successfully recycled and used as a fuel was discussion in Shepparton in 2013 by Professor Veena Sahajwalla.

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) professor was one of three speakers at the first of a series of forums staged by the Shepparton-based group, Slap Tomorrow.

More than 600 people were at the city’s Eastbank auditorium to hear the Director of Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology  at the university (SMaRT@UNSW) talk about her research on Sustainable Materials Processing, which involved old tyres.

Professor Sahajwalla has received many international and Australian awards with the most recent being the 2008 New South Wales Scientist of the Year Award in the category of Engineering Sciences for her research on recycling waste plastics in steelmaking, a process which she invented.

And now a green start-up technology company has surprised scientists by producing a biofuel from old rubber tyres that can run turbo-charged diesel engines while reducing emissions by 30 per cent.

Green Distillation Technologies (GDT) can produce 3,000 litres of bio-oil from one giant seven-tonne mining truck tyre.

Read the ABC story - "Biofuel discovery: start-up company breathes new life into old tyres.”

Steel from old tyres and ceramics from nutshells – how industry can use our rubbish

Veena Sahajwalla - researching how we
best use of society's waste products.

Veena Sahajwalla was one of three speakers at first forum staged in Shepparton by Slap Tomorrow.

Others speakers with the University of New South Wales professor at the 2013 forum (Climate change: a wake-up call) were the former leader of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Anna Rose, and Victorian climate change activist and former weather announcer on Channel 7, Rob Gell.

The UNSW professor talked then of combatting climate change by using old tyres and through a process she was researching and documenting, using them to produce energy.

More than 600 people attended the Shepparton event.

Read the piece on The Conversation by the Professor and Director of the Centre for SustainableMaterials Research and Technology (SMaRT) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Veena Sahajwalla, and a Senior Research Associate at the UNSW, Farshid Pahlevani -  “Steel from old tyres and ceramics from nutshells – how industry can use our rubbish.”

Mark June 6 in your diary and make "Slap Tomorrow - A Wake-Call" a success

Beneath the Wisteria supporters should mark Thursday, June 6, in their diary.

That is the date of a major public forum in Shepparton – “Slap Tomorrow – A Wake-Up Call”.

The idea for the forum grew out of Beneath the Wisteria when supporter, Terry Court, said it felt as if we were “talking to ourselves” at our monthly gathering in Shepparton’s Maude St Mall.

The June 6 forum will be either free or gold coin donation and feature Climate Commissioner, Prof Veena Sahajwalla; the chair of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Anna Rose; and environmental consultant, Rob Gell; with Victoria’s Sustainability Commissioner, Prof Kate Auty, as the moderator, will be held at Shepparton’s Eastbank auditorium.

 

The auditorium seats 830 people and our prime responsibility is to ensure they are filled.

 

Below is the brochure printed to illustrate to potential financial supporters what the forum is about and who will be speaking.