Vivid Ideas – Waste Resurrection

Discover how eco-alchemist Prof Veena Sahajwalla has revolutionised e-waste recycling creating the world's first micro-factory.

Professor Veena Sahajwalla is a rock star. Internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer and inventor she is revolutionising recycling for the future. Join her to hear how her pioneering techniques are changing the concept of recycling for our modern world.

Known for her appearances on the ABC The New Inventors and War on Waste, Veena Sahajwalla is renowned for pioneering the temperature transformation of waste in the production of a new generation of ‘green materials.’ As the founding Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, she is producing a new generation of green materials and products made entirely, or primarily, from waste.

In 2018 she launched the world's first e-waste microfactory, bringing solutions to the waste problem. In future, these small-scale microfactories will enable local communities to produce many of the products, materials and resources they need locally, using resources largely derived from waste.