Circular Australia is a proud partner of PV Industries, who is currently undergoing their Circular Solar Trials. The project brings together a collaborative and industry-led approach to develop solar panel recycling and end-of-life solutions for the solar and lithium-ion battery economies. This project has been funded under the NSW Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) Circular Solar grants program.
An article in the Sydney Morning Herald spotlights PV Industries’ work – we’ve shared a snippet below.
Sustainability Victoria has estimated 100,000 tonnes of panels will become waste by 2035 Australia-wide, but there is also scope for the development of new markets and manufacturing using the valuable materials.
Ways to collect, use and process the waste will need to be developed, particularly for glass – which makes up most of a solar panel by weight.
“Right now, most of those solar panels that reach end of life go to landfill,” Dawson told a recent conference.
Tackling the gargantuan challenge, his business PV Industries has set up drop-off points available to the public in Sydney and Melbourne.
The firm provides a one-stop shop for recycling the panels, inverters, cables and the rooftop framework systems are mounted on, handling both household and larger-scale set-ups.
“This is a massive challenge to solve because of the sheer scale,” Tim Dawson warns.
Read the full article here.
