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From Waste To Value: How Australia’s Circular Economy Is Turning Rubbish Into Revenue

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

September 17, 2026

Ten years ago, Lynne Loo was an academic scientist in Australia studying how waste could be repurposed. What began as a research project soon evolved into something larger: a practical blueprint for extracting commercial value from materials most businesses would send to landfill.

Today, Loo is helping startup founders turn that idea into reality. As a waste broker, she connects emerging businesses with markets for by-products and discarded materials, giving viable new ventures a route from laboratory concept to commercial scale.

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Australia’s Waste Problem Creates A Business Opportunity

Australia generates 76 million tonnes of waste each year, according to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Much of it still ends up in landfill. That scale of waste presents an environmental challenge, but it also opens a market for entrepreneurs capable of rethinking what discarded materials can become.

Across industries, innovators are finding that waste is not only a disposal problem. In the right hands, it can be a feedstock, a raw material, and in some cases, a high-value product in its own right.

Turning Food Waste Into Cellulose Products

One example comes from Matt Barber, who has built a home laboratory focused on extracting cellulose from food waste. From that material, he is developing paper, leather and wood alternatives, with potential applications in bioplastics as well.

“So, what I get is pure cellulose that comes out and then from there, I process that into other paper, leather or wood products. But it could be turned into a bioplastic. It can be turned into any uses. So you can, instead of growing a tree, which takes 75 years, you can grow this in a week,” Barber explained.

For Barber, the venture fits alongside his day job, but access to the right market is critical. That is where Loo’s work becomes essential. “You have a start up and you don’t know what to do with it and she [Loo] helps you find a market for it,” he said.

From Rubbish To Vinegar, Biochar And Oil

At a waste facility in Collie, Western Australia, Renergi is pursuing a more industrial version of the same principle. Using thermal conversion technology, the company is transforming rubbish into products including vinegar, biochar and oil.

“We can process just under about 30,000 tonnes of biomass waste per year and 4,000 tonnes per annum of the town’s municipal solar waste,” said Deejay Parker of Renergi.

More than 70% of the material is recovered and converted into new outputs. The biochar is already being used on fruit farms and at a winery across Southern Western Australia, demonstrating how waste recovery can create practical value for regional agriculture.

The project has received funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency as part of broader efforts to expand renewable technologies into regional communities. At full scale, it is expected to become one of the country’s largest producers.

Why Circular Thinking Is Winning Traction

Loo says the momentum matters as much as the technology. “I think it’s important for people to see that it’s possible because there are so many naysayers,” she said.

That is the central lesson of Australia’s growing waste innovation sector: with the right science, business model and market access, discarded materials can become industrial inputs, farm products and new revenue streams. In a resource-constrained economy, the smartest waste strategy may be to stop seeing waste as the end of the line.

Instead, it can be the beginning of a new value chain.

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Europe’s Deadly Summer Heat Exposed The Cost Of A Warming Continent

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 23, 2026

Europe experienced its deadliest summer for heat-related deaths on record in 2026, with an estimated 24,400 excess deaths linked to extreme temperatures across 30 countries. Researchers estimate that human-induced climate change was responsible for around 32,000 of the deaths attributed to heat in the study’s broader analysis, accounting for 65% of the total.

The findings highlight the growing public-health consequences of global warming, largely driven by fossil fuel use, as extreme heat becomes more frequent and severe.

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A Summer Of Dangerous Heat

Between June and August, heatwaves pushed temperatures in Western Europe to an average of 2.9°C above the 1991–2020 norm, with some days reaching 12°C above average. Nearly a third of estimated heat-related deaths occurred during a particularly intense heatwave between 17 June and 1 July.

“These numbers are a stark reminder that our hotter, more extreme summers are having an increasingly severe impact on public health,” said Dr Clair Barnes, a researcher at Imperial College London and co-author of the study.

The estimated toll exceeded previous peaks of around 29,000 deaths in summer 2022 and 28,000 in 2003 across the region studied.

How Researchers Estimated The Toll

Researchers modelled the relationship between temperature and mortality across 854 urban areas in the EU, UK, Norway and Switzerland, covering around 40% of the population in the 30 countries studied.

The analysis incorporated temperature records, age, socioeconomic conditions, environmental factors and access to healthcare. By comparing actual temperatures with those expected without human-induced warming, the team estimated the additional deaths attributable to climate change.

Final official mortality figures for summer 2026 are not yet available in many countries, and heat-related deaths are often underreported because their effects can be difficult to identify directly.

Older People Face The Greatest Risk

People aged 85 and over accounted for roughly half of the estimated deaths. However, the impact extended across age groups, with around 800 excess deaths among adults aged 20–44 and approximately 6,000 among people under 65.

Southern Europe experienced the highest mortality burden, reflecting hotter temperatures and other vulnerabilities, including air pollution, limited green space and unequal access to healthcare and heat-alert systems.

Italy, France And Spain Record Highest Toll

Italy recorded an estimated 13,303 heat-related excess deaths, followed by France with 7,268 and Spain with 6,824. Germany recorded around 6,340, while the UK saw an estimated 4,354 deaths.

In the UK, the heat also placed significant pressure on healthcare services. Andrew Hartle, Professor of Practice of Anaesthesia at Imperial College Healthcare, said demand during the summer resembled that of a severe winter virus season.

Cities Urged To Strengthen Heat Protection

Researchers say cities can reduce the risks through climate shelters, external shading and building retrofits, alongside measures to help residents avoid exposure during the hottest hours. Checking on vulnerable people, staying hydrated and following heat alerts are also important.

The researchers stress that adaptation must go hand in hand with reducing fossil fuel use to limit further warming. The findings underline that extreme heat is already a major public-health threat across Europe, with thousands of lives at risk each summer.