Penrith Champions Circular Economy Innovation and businesses flock to learn more

Penrith City Council has long been at the forefront of innovation in sustainability, and this was reinforced at a recent event that brought leading experts from industry and government to Penrith.

Council, in partnership with Regional Development Australia (RDA) Sydney, delivered the Building the Future with Circular Solutions event held in St Marys on August 22, with the program featuring industry leaders in the circular economy and expert speakers from NSW and local government.

Former Penrith Mayor Tricia Hitchen opened the event highlighting to the over 100 attendees that Western Sydney is well-positioned as the centre of innovation to drive change through the circular economy, backed by unprecedented investment from businesses.
“We are seeing industry, business and government redefining resource recovery – what was once rubbish is now resources that can be recycled, reused, remanufactured, and reimagined. “We can deliver better economic, environmental and social outcomes; it takes innovation and a shift in thinking and operating, with collaboration the key,” Cr Hitchen said.

Council has a proven track record of delivering initiatives that promote a circular economy. Penrith was the first metropolitan council in Sydney to implement the Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) waste stream. Since its implementation in 2009, our City has diverted over 440,000 tonnes of waste from landfill for reuse as compost on local sporting fields, parks and gardens.

Other Council initiatives in this space include the Australian first use of recycled coffee cups in our road asphalt mix to resurface our roads. Similarly, the use of recycled glass to create more durable road surfaces across the City has also been embraced.

Steve Mann, Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) CEO, joined the panel discussion on Challenges and Opportunities for Industry, and identified affordability as a key issue facing builders and developers in the current housing crisis. 

"UDIA have been representing developers for over 60 years, in Western Sydney and across Australia. We know we have to embrace all of the challenges, including issue around resilience to ensure that we do move forward as a country. UDIA, along with other large emitters, has been part of advocating for the built environment with the federal Government, to ensure we have a targeted approach to circularity." 

Kylie Hargreaves, RDA Sydney Deputy Chair, and Chief Sustainability Officer, National Intermodal, conveyed to the audience how important it is for the construction sector to rethink its approach to waste.

“It is abundantly clear that the old linear approach of take, make and dispose, simply cannot continue.”

“Instead, we must reduce our initial demand for resources and then re-use, re-purpose or recycle those same resources as many times as possible.

Throughout the day attendees were presented with several case studies highlighting innovative ideas, businesses and products already adopting circular economy solutions, including Penrith City Council’s award winning ‘Let it Bee’ wildflower meadow project.

Penrith continues to expand upon this with new programs that look to address areas such as textile waste and repurposing old and unwanted bicycles. Council’s support of the charity DV Safe Phone has seen more than 200 mobile phones collected by the community to be refurbished and handed to the region’s domestic violence victims.

In 2022, Council developed a Circular Economy Roadmap, which identified four focus areas and 18 initiatives to ensure that Council is implementing circular economy principles and practices within its own functions and operations. Council also engages with the community and local businesses to build capacity and support actions to transition to a circular economy.

For more information on the Circular Economy, visit Penrith City Council’s Circular Economy Hub.