Investing in blue-sky thinking to support a circular future
The safety pin. The microwave. Penicillin. Each of these inventions and countless more were uncovered by a spirit of discovery, changing our way of life forever.
At Sustainability Victoria, we’re investing in innovation, supporting businesses to run pilots and trials that may lead to important discoveries for sustainability.
We understand that research and development is an essential part of innovation, and that government plays a role in bringing industry and business into the future by incentivising and harvesting the original thinking we need to transition to the circular economy.
A healthcare worker can go through up to 20 disposable gowns every day. Under the Victorian Government’s Circular Economy Innovation Fund, we gave Melbourne University a grant to investigate the possibility of developing a reusable hospital gown in partnership with Western Health and business Full Circle Fibres.
Each day, a healthcare worker can go through up to 20 disposable gowns, which are then incinerated. Many of these gowns are worn for just seconds before being thrown away. This project aims to reduce the number of gowns used each day to around 6 while still maintaining strict infection control.
Not every solution trialled was successful or the best option for implementation. After experimentation with 3 different gown coatings, one option will now go through additional trials.
University of Melbourne’s Associate Professor Jo Staines says she appreciated the support of Sustainability Victoria as the project moved in different directions.
'I felt they had a strong understanding that there are a lot of unknowns,' Jo says.
'It was critical for us to be supported through the trial-and-error phase. Now we have the data and will be able use this to influence the infection control community.'
'More than one-third of a squid is considered waste, even though it contains up to 12% omega-3 oil and is high in protein.' Mantzaris Fisheries and Deakin University also received a grant from the Circular Economy Innovation Fund. Their idea was to develop a manufacturing process to extract a high-value, omega-3-rich nutritional oil from squid guts.
A significant amount of waste is generated in the processing of seafood, posing challenges for wild-harvest fisheries, processors, and aquaculture industries.
More than one-third of a squid is considered waste, even though this material contains up to 12% omega-3 oil and is high in protein.
Calamari processor Mantzaris Fisheries developed an initial concept to use the oil as a nutritional supplement. They faced difficulty with recovering the oil from the squid waste and took this idea to Deakin, who developed a laboratory scale proof of concept.
Deakin’s Dr Brendan Holland said the funding from Sustainability Victoria was crucial to taking the concept out of the lab.
'While we might have the chemistry knowledge, we would normally be limited to a certain number of experiments or trials,' Brendan says.
'But with government support, we were able to design and purchase new equipment that’s not commercially available, which in turn meant we could try out a few different designs.'
Brendan says the equipment they designed as part of this process will have a role to play in future experiments involving other oils and apple waste.
'The work we’ve done under this project is definitely transferrable,” Brendan says. “It’s not just a one-off in our eyes; it’s something we plan to use in similar initiatives that are taking food waste and creating something of greater value.'
Investment and innovation are at the core of Sustainability Victoria’s mission to drive our transition to a circular economy. In 2022–23 alone, almost half a million tonnes of waste was diverted from landfill thanks to our work in this space.
By partnering with business and connecting Victoria’s experts and innovators with the funding and tools they need, we’re delivering solutions that will transform Victoria’s economy for a sustainable future.
Doing business differently
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