Recycled Product Database for the water sector

The use of recycled products and more sustainable materials in water utility infrastructure can reduce embodied emissions and lower the impact on the environment.

Project objective

Victoria’s water sector is at the forefront of advancing circular economy initiatives, integrating approaches across water, waste, energy and infrastructure. There are further opportunities for the water sector to reduce environmental impact through the increased use of more sustainable and recycled products in water utility infrastructure.

This project aimed to support uptake of recycled products by:

• Developing a recycled products and materials database for water infrastructure
• Undertaking a market sounding for high potential products to understand market barriers and opportunities for the use of these products in water infrastructure
• Making recommendations on sustainable procurement indicators to measure progress of using recycled materials.

Key findings

1. Recycled products are available for use in projects, and most of them are local in Victoria
2. Recycled plastic pipes, aggregates and sand have the greatest potential for uptake now
3. Ancillary equipment and premix concrete are also exciting opportunities
4. The barriers to uptake of new products are not insurmountable.

The ‘Victorian Water Sector Recycled Products Report’ and the database of recycled products that were identified in the study are available to the left.

 Project team

This project was funded by the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA), with VicWater (Stuart Craven), Yarra Valley Water (Lisa Ehrenfried, lisa.ehrenfried@yvw.com.au), North East Water (Jill Fagan, Jfagan@newater.com.au) and Barwon Water (Hayley Vinden, Hayley.vinden@barwonwater.vic.gov.au) members of the Steering Committee. Please get in touch with Lisa, Jill or Hayley for further information or if you have additional products we should consider for inclusion in the spreadsheet.