Matchmaker ASPIRE rehomes recovered resources

Businesses are using an innovative digital platform to exchange waste, resulting in benefits to the economy and the environment.

Developed by CSIRO, the ASPIRE (Advisory System for Processing, Innovation & Resource Exchange) online marketplace matches up businesses to exchange, reuse and recycle materials that would otherwise be diverted to landfill.

ASPIRE CEO Cameron McKenzie said, “ASPIRE reduces waste costs for businesses, decreases landfill, creates new business opportunities, and creates markets for the supply and demand of materials.

“At ASPIRE, we have positioned ourselves as a facilitator of behaviour change — starting with educating and encouraging businesses to adopt circular habits through the use of the platform.

“Thus far, ASPIRE has onboarded 500+ businesses, diverted 45,000+ tonnes of waste from landfill, being active in Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland, saving businesses over $210,000 per year,” he said.

ASPIRE CEO Cameron McKenzie.

Casafico, a Melbourne-based manufacturer of innovative building products, regularly sources materials using ASPIRE. Environmental management is an essential part of Casafico’s business, which strives to formulate and develop new products for the building industry incorporating waste materials wherever possible.

Through an innovative manufacturing processes, Casafico repurposes collected recycled materials, processing them into various formulations of coating, panel and building products.

Through ASPIRE, Casafico has connected with Wrapco to exchange expanded polysterene (EPS). With the feedstock, Casafico was able to close the loop around Wrapco’s issue of waste resources ending in landfill by remanufacturing it into building products.

Casafico’s product Tecoblock contains more than 50% waste material in each block, which would have otherwise gone to landfill.

By sourcing recovered materials via ASPIRE, Casafico is currently diverting 9 m³ of polystyrene per day, 1.5 tonnes of paper per day and 2 tonnes of glass per week.

Casafico’s Samantha Mucci said the company was in desperate need of resources and ASPIRE helped them locate materials from another business nearby, Armstrong Flooring, that would have otherwise been diverted to landfill.

“ASPIRE is an integral part of our business, which shows transparency to all our stakeholders to see how much waste we divert from landfill and how much CO₂ we save.

“It’s gotten us through tights spots when we were low on waste and, with its current icons and easy-to-navigate interface, we were able to find a new supplier to replenish stock. It allows us to connect to a like-minded community on a platform where we can also advertise our waste to be reused.

“We will use ASPIRE to research new waste streams for product development and, most importantly, know that our waste is not being stockpiled or buried. With ASPIRE we have confidence that our waste is being responsibly rescued, reused or, as we do, transformed into new product.

“ASPIRE lets us track our resource recovery. It’s so easy to use and everyone in the business can log on to see how much we’ve diverted from landfill,” she said.

As an added bonus, using ASPIRE reduces double handling of freight and transport emissions for both parties.