At Sustainability Victoria, we see the beauty in waste. In fact, materials often treated as rubbish are so valuable, we find it hard to call it ‘waste’ at all. For example, just a 5% improvement in materials efficiency could boost the Victorian economy by $6.4 billion.
Recycled products are all around us – you just need to know where to look. You’ll find recycled materials in everyday consumer products like kids’ toys, mattresses and food packaging, as well as roads, sports fields, footpaths and outdoor picnic furniture. Even your food scraps are being recycled, made into new fertilisers to help grow your next meal.
But changing the way we think about waste is not just about recycling. To truly get the most value out of the things we make and use every day, we need to transition to a circular economy – a reset on the way we consume and value our resources.
