Veena Sahajwalla: Well, thank you very much for having me here today. I wanted to just
begin quickly by giving you a little bit of insight as to why I actually think that reviving
waste, bringing it back to life, is the way of the future. We talk about recycling, so
I'll tell you a little bit about what it actually means, how do we redefine our whole thinking
around recycling. And it is to do with bringing waste back to life.
So let's just try and understand why this is so important. I mean, we all are creatures
of our products and everything that we need to use, our electronic goods, the cars, the
materials that we have in our day-to-day lives, the basics, the clothing, the footwear, and
the list goes on and on. And of course, it's exciting. We all love it. But I think the
real challenge that it creates, which I find, actually, equally exciting, is how do we then
take the waste that it has created and, in fact, convert that into a resource, so we
don't, in fact, have this negative impact on our environment. Can we actually do that?
Can we actually achieve this utopia, where we can still go on? We depend upon our material
goods, but can we also do it without having this negative impact? And hopefully, one day,
we'll get there. We will absolutely get there.
In fact, the whole notion of using waste and looking at the value in it always excited
me. In a place like Mumbai, where I grew up, it was always an exciting sort of fact that
someone would actually come around and give you some money for all those empty bottles
that you could, in fact, collect. So for me, it didn't matter if it was all you'd get is
five paise. It was five P, and that's what was important to me.
So suddenly, this notion of waste connected to value was very exciting. So if you could,
in fact, attach some value to it, why would you waste the waste? Can we actually get to
the stage where nothing is, in fact, considered a waste? Well, of course, we all do our bit
about recycling, and the whole conventional notion of taking plastic, converting it to
plastic, the notion of taking a product like glass and converting it into glass, and steel
into steel, and so on, and we're all familiar with that. So what about those scenarios where
we still have a problem, where we still produce so much of waste that ends up in landfill?
The reality is that these types of materials are so complex, and we need to understand
and respect those.
But equally importantly, if we could find a way to use these types of resources as valuable
raw materials, as valuable inputs, and if we could re-conceive them as raw materials,
to manufacture completely different types of products, then, in fact, we would be in
a situation where, actually, nothing would be considered a waste. It would, in fact,
be such that everything could be seen as a valuable raw material, as a valuable starting
point for something else. So we could imagine a scenario where, in fact, a product could
end its life in one form, in one shape, and, of course, go on to become something completely
different. Well, how do you actually do that? If we could do that, though, we would never
really waste anything.
So, in fact, let's have a look at why waste is so complex. Yes, if you look at something
that we're all familiar with--a car--of course, in there, at the end of its life, a car, the
steel is recycled and it's converted into new steel, and that's all great. But just
think for a moment: what else do you have in there, other than steel, is you've got
a whole bunch of different types of plastics. All part of our daily life. I'm using plastic
as an example because, whether it's an industrial product, or whether it's something that we
touch in our daily lives, or something we just use at home, the reality is that that
is part of the challenge. We all love to use it, it's great, it's convenient, and we really
can't live without it.
The fact of the matter is that even in something like a car, we've got huge amounts of these
materials that are present. At the end of its life, the steel is recycled. The mixtures
of different kinds of plastics that are present in these types of automotive components, they
all end up in landfill. Why is that? Because it's a complex mixture. It's not just a straightforward
thing of saying, "We'll just take this plastic, recycle it back as another plastic." You simply
can't do that economically, because of the fact that it's a complex mixture.
So how do we actually deal with this problem? I mean, if you can't think about that conventional
notion of recycling, could we actually think of it as, at the core of it, the basic elements
that are present in these types of materials? And if you ask, "What are the basic elements
that are present, and how could we then reconfigure and use those raw materials to make something
completely different?"
And here's a wild thought. If we could say, right, all of that waste plastics, if we could
actually use that and make steel out of it... I'm sure you're probably sitting there thinking,
"Hang on. Plastic. Steel. They're nothing like each other. How on earth could you possibly
ever get to that point where you're starting to use a waste coming out of...?" Plastic
looks different to steel. You look at it in cars, right? You've got steel and you've got
plastics, and if I put the two together, they're completely different. What's she on about?
The reality is that at the core of some of these types of materials--and I'll come to
that a little bit later--what is present at the elemental level is what we need to look
at. We need to look at how we might be able to break it down at that absolute, basic level.
And in fact, the fact is that between these two materials, however unlikely a match they
seem to be, the reality is that there are common elements. So, in fact, all I can say
is, when they are cold at room-temperature conditions, they look like they don't even
want to react and talk to each other.
So how could you use plastic in the process of making steel? Let me just tell you a little
secret. That's when things are cold, at room temperatures. This is what we're all used
to. You start to heat up these things, at high temperatures--things get really hot and
heavy now--that's when, actually, the chemical reactions start to happen.
So from the point of view of looking at it as a materials engineer, it's very exciting,
because you can say, "Well, right, OK. That means if I can start to change conditions
under which I react these materials, I could actually look at a whole range of different
scenarios and possibilities." And I'll come to that in a minute, as to how we've managed
to achieve that in the context of these types of materials.
Another interesting example, of course, that we all are used to is rubber tires, right?
Whether it's tires coming out of cars or trucks, or planes for that matter, right? It's all
there in the wheels of it.
This beautiful picture, of course, illustrates that we have lots of it, all over the world.
How do we possibly take something like this, which is a resource--and notice, I want to
start calling it as a resource, because it is a resource, after all; it's too good to
be thrown away--but how do we actually find a way to use this type of waste resource and
put it into a manufacturing process where it actually becomes something value-added?
I mean, is it at all possible that we can have green technologies that are going to
be good for the environment and are going to lead to better economic outcomes?
I know it sounds all very much that sort of thing of, yes, it's all nice to do. The reality
is, I'll give you an example of one technology that actually shows that it is possible. That
means we are starting down this journey where we can start to look at development of technologies,
bringing together a whole range of different opportunities within the manufacturing sector.
And certainly, the example that I will give you is the world's first that has been developed
right here in Australia, and we have now implemented it to actually demonstrate that, yes, on a
commercial scale, this is very much possible.
So let me use the example of rubber tires and tell you how, indeed, we can achieve that.
We basically have used it in the process of making steel. And you might say, "Well, really,
how do you use it in the process of making steel? And what's cappuccino got to do with
steel-making, again?" So here we go with all these weird sort of connections. The reality
is that in the process of making steel, when you've got all of these amazing liquids that
are present at high temperatures--so you can see, in the picture, where it's glowing hot,
it's more than 1,500 degrees centigrade. So remember, I promised you that there is a scenario
at high-temperature conditions where this actually becomes quite a valuable raw material.
And I'll just start to play this example here, where I'm starting to compare the situation
where, of course, traditional materials--and it's a coal-based material that's used in
this process. You might say, "Well, that's all good." What's happening here is you've
got, at high temperatures, chemical reaction that's taking place. So the base that is sitting
there is, in fact, a coal-based material, very much conventional technology. That's
normal practice.
And you might say, "OK, well, it's all very sort of boring, old steel-making process.
Why are you showing us all of this?" If you now go back and say, "Well, actually, if this
is what's happening with coal-based carbon, could we look at these alternative resources
like that of rubber tires, which do contain carbon, and can we actually use that in the
process of making steel?" Hey, look at what we've got to compare it against. The performance
is OK; it's not all of that crash hot.
So let's look at what happens when we actually introduce some amount of rubber, in fact,
in the blend. So now we've started to bring along rubber, and we've said this is a waste.
Same conditions, same temperatures, same scenario of reactions. And what actually gave us enormous
joy out of looking at all of these types of situations where high-temperature reactions
were occurring: one it showed us straight away is that the chemical reactions in this
instance were actually much, much more effective. You can see that this thing almost has a mind
of its own. It was starting to react, and it was actually telling us something even
before the data had been analyzed.
So we're now sitting in a whole different regime, where waste doesn't have to be thought
of as a waste. We could actually introduce things like waste rubber tires into a steel-making
process and achieve much better outcomes. So, of course, we knew that we were doing
the right thing for the environment, but the fact that it can, in fact, give you a better
process, and better, efficient process out of using these types of materials, is a great
win. Of course, I'll come back to it in just a minute, where I'll tell you how many different
tires we have, in fact, recycled in this process.
Now, another aspect, as I was mentioning to you earlier, that if you're actually making
steel, steel, under liquid conditions--remember, I said more than 1,500 degrees Celsius--it
needs iron and carbon. And carbon's an important alloying addition. So we said, "Right, OK.
Well, let's see if we avoid using coal-based materials, and if we just took plastics."
Again, a lot of these types of waste materials contain the critical ingredient that we need
in the process of making steel, such as carbon.
And what are you doing? Quite simply, you're dissolving that carbon into liquid steel.
So these are high temperatures. Carbon is actually becoming part of the liquid steel,
and you're making that end product. As far as liquid steel is concerned, it doesn't matter
where that carbon came from. If it came from waste, if it came from coal-based carbon,
doesn't matter. As long as the end product meets the specifications, you still achieve
the right kind of outcome. The difference here is you've created a whole another possibility
of actually using waste resources as input into the manufacturing process.
So here we've demonstrated a couple of examples of how all of these things work in the lab,
and that's all very fascinating. So you might say, "Well, that's all good. Works in the
lab: fantastic. Do we actually have an example of whether this can be possible in a real
steel-making environment?" And the short answer to that question is, yes, it can be. In fact,
we've now taken this concept, and it's the world's first in terms of applying this innovative
idea into a commercial practice, and that's happened at OneSteel.
But it also, equally importantly, showed us that it wasn't just about recycling the waste,
but demonstrating the potential opportunities that we have, where we don't have to think
of it as a bad thing, as something that's not necessarily going to give us good outcomes.
In fact, quite the contrary. It ended up demonstrating that by using this type of waste resource,
we actually were able to get better performance out of this material.
So, I mean, who says it's a waste? Well, let's call it a waste, but let's remember that it's
a waste resource. And in fact, here is an example of how you can use these types of
waste resources and put it into a completely different application. Which means, at the
end of the day, there's no limit to how we reuse and how we, in fact, re-conceive these
types of materials as input materials for manufacturing processes.
The fact that we can take the science out of the labs and put that out into manufacturing
technologies in the real world just tells us, yes, there are a whole range of possible
scenarios that we haven't even started to think about, where we can take waste resources
and we can actually put that into real practice as very real raw materials, not just the token
thing of recycling waste, but really thinking about it as a viable raw material that has
got amazing outcomes.
So, at the end of the day, where are we headed to in all of this? Can we really ever get
to that point where we are looking at a future which is a zero-waste future? Can we actually
look at a whole range of different products that we are using in our day-to-day lives,
whether it's using sporting equipment that needs to be of special strength, or whether
we've got fabric materials with certain properties? It doesn't matter. The question is, can we
actually imagine that we can re-conceive a lot of our waste materials as valuable raw
materials?
And I certainly do believe that the future is there, just ready for us to take it on,
where we can, in fact, see a zero-waste future, where we are looking at giving new life to
waste materials, bringing it back up to life, looking at it as a viable alternative in the
future, and really looking at not talking about end-of-life disposal, which is what
we've been talking about. It's really, now, the future is saying, well, let's talk about
how we might be able to do end-of-life revival that's putting new life into these types of
materials, so nothing is a waste and everything is a resource. Thank you very much.
[applause]