City of Launceston, Tas
Population: 70,055
Nestled in Tasmania’s north, Launceston is more than just the state’s second-largest city, it’s a community striving to redefine waste and sustainability. With a population of over 70,000, the City of Launceston is spearheading initiatives to embed circular economy principles into its core, turning challenges into opportunities and waste into resources.
A Region on a Mission
Launceston has a regional landfill which takes 100,000 tonnes of waste per year. Landfill diversion and the circular economy are important parts of waste management for the City of Launceston. The council has established kerbside collections of food organics and garden organics (FOGO) which are then processed into materials for reuse. Launceston has an opt-in FOGO scheme and will change over to a scheme for all residents in the future.
Locally, there are also polystyrene recycling machines which produce polystyrene bricks that can be used for producing composite wood products, plastic fibre products and pallets. The council is also doing a business feasibility study for a new diversion facility which is estimated to be able to divert 50-60% of waste, such as scrap steel and other manufacturing materials from landfill.
At the same time, the City of Launceston’s procurement policy is now incorporating more sustainability practices, including looking at material sourcing, manufacturing, packaging and if products are designed for single use or can be repaired, repurposed or reused.
The local industry sector is also developing many circular initiatives. For example, civil construction companies like Downer, take in glass and rubber products and used construction and demolition waste, like concrete, metal, bricks and gas pipelines, to produce new materials.
Drivers of circular economy
In Launceston, both the council and businesses are major players and drivers of the circular economy.
For the council, landfill diversion is the major motivator. The accumulation of waste, which can be reused but goes to landfill, negatively impacts the environment and reduces efficiency of resource use and potential opportunities. From a business perspective, many companies are looking to become more sustainable for commercial reasons. Although reducing costs might not be an economic driver for implementing a circular economy, as in many cases raw materials could be cheaper than reprocessed, businesses still see this as an opportunity to deliver sustainable profits in the future.
Entrepreneurship and innovative spirit are an important driver for a circular economy. Moreover, state authorities such as Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) Tasmania and the Tasmanian Waste and Resource Recovery Board play an important role in the development of the circular economy in the region. For example, prioritising circularity is one of the four pillars of the Tasmanian Waste and Resource Recovery Strategy 2023-2026.
The City of Launceston has received various grants and funding to build circular economy infrastructure through these authorities
A waste levy is a further economic instrument the state government uses to drive businesses and communities towards circularity, although our interviewees remarked the levy is too low to make a significant difference.
There are also some regional waste management organisations such as the Northern Tasmanian Waste Management Group based in Launceston which provide grants for circular economy development.
Benefits and challenges
The largest benefit of implementing the principles of circular economy is increased landfill diversion. For example, in 2023, about 30,000 tonnes of food and garden organics in Launceston were recycled rather than being landfilled. Diverting landfill limits impacts on surface and ground waters as well as the atmosphere through reducing carbon emissions. There are also economic benefits, such as improving resource efficiency as Tasmania has scarce minerals and resources. From a business perspective, there is add-on value from recycled products especially from sustainability branding.
Some of the key challenges and barriers for the City of Launceston to further circular economy initiatives involve geographical issues and economies of scale. As Tasmania’s economy is relatively small, market access can be difficult and may involve transportation across long distances. Scale of economy issues also limit the possibility of on-island processing of waste.
Another barrier facing Tasmania is a lack of infrastructure to support a circular economy, which also relates to economies of scale. Although the landfill levy has made some difference, it is still not big enough to support largescale infrastructure projects or to significantly change the behaviour of producers and consumers.
For example, the City of Launceston has looked multiple times at setting up a facility for recycling construction and demolition waste, but it has been too expensive to fund.
Lastly, the costs of recycling (except for organics) are still very high compared to landfilling. This undermines people’s willingness to transfer from landfilling to recycling. In addition, interviewees suggested there is still much ambiguity in everyday recycling education and inconsistency in service, and thus a lack of shared vision, which impedes the implementation of a circular economy.