Australia’s shift towards electric vehicles (EVs), rooftop solar and other renewable energy technologies is expected to create growing volumes of end-of-life waste, according to researchers at RMIT University.
RMIT researchers said the country will need stronger systems for managing materials from clean energy technologies as more products reach the end of their useful lives.
Dr Akvan Gajanayake, a lecturer at RMIT’s School of Property, Construction and Project Management, said Australia could face significant challenges in managing EV batteries.
“By 2035, Australia could have millions of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries with nowhere to go,” Gajanayake said.
He said EV batteries contain materials including lithium, cobalt and nickel that require specialist processing, while Australia currently lacks what he described as sufficient infrastructure, policy frameworks and coordination to manage the waste at scale.
“Technical solutions for how to recycle this waste exist, however for such technical solutions to operationalise, the softer systems need to be in place,” Gajanayake said.
He said households, manufacturers, recyclers, policymakers and community groups would need to work together to develop systems for managing battery waste.
RMIT also highlighted the growing waste challenge associated with rooftop solar. Associate Professor Muhammad Dan-Asabe Abdulrahman, from RMIT’s Supply Chain and Logistics Management discipline, said Australia’s high uptake of rooftop solar was contributing to increasing volumes of panels and related equipment approaching the end of their useful lives.
“By 2035, Australia is projected to generate one million tonnes (around 50 million panels) of solar panel waste,” Abdulrahman said.
He said a key gap was the absence of a nationally coordinated Digital Product Passport (DPP) framework to track products throughout their life cycles and support collection and recycling.
“A nationally coordinated approach to product transparency through DPPs will advance Australia toward a circular and regenerative economy,” Abdulrahman said.
RMIT said its researchers are examining how policy, industry and community stakeholders can contribute to managing clean energy waste and developing more circular approaches to materials.
Gajanayake will present the “2035 EV Battery Negotiations” on 3 October, while Abdulrahman will participate in an industry round table on material transparency on 15 October. Both events form part of RMIT’s Energy Futures events season, presented by the .
