Bega will become Australia’s most circular economy by 2030 if ambitious Australian businessman Barry Irvin has his way.

When Mr Irvin took over running Bega Cheese in 1991 it was a small dairy cooperative.  

Now called Bega Group, the listed food company Bega has a $3 billion annual turnover.

Mr Irvin said it was a light-bulb moment when he first heard about the concept of circularity.

“Once you see it you can’t unsee it,” he said.

He was converted after a Dutch banker explained how the Netherlands was leading the world in adopting low emission, sustainable circular practices.

“Circularity’s a virtuous circle where everybody wins, and that’s from an economic, social and environmental point of view,” Mr Irvin said.

He has spent the last two years convincing leaders in business, government and academia to support Australia’s biggest circularity experiment.

“We could get 30 per cent of the economy circular by then [2030], and 50 per cent within a decade,” Mr Irvin said.

“We need to catch up with the types of targets the Europeans have.

“In the Netherlands for example the target isn’t net zero by 2050, it’s to be a fully circular economy by 2050.”

What is a circular economy?

Countries in Europe are leading the world in moving from linear economies where goods are single-use only to circular ones, where resources are continuously recycled and re-used.

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“It’s about keeping materials in the economy for as long as possible at their highest value, designing out waste and pollution, and then regenerating natural systems,” Circularity Australia CEO Lisa McLean said.

Ms McLean said Australia couldn’t reach net zero without going circular.

The Bega Valley Shire Council was an enthusiastic participant of the circularity project.

It already runs a recycling centre and a weekly organic waste Food and Garden Organics (FOGO) collection service.

Last year 10,000 tonnes of methane-producing food and garden waste were diverted from landfill.

But despite almost half of the region’s waste being recycled or composted, 19,000 tonnes of rubbish was sent to landfill last year.

“Unfortunately that number’s increasing, and it’s increasing larger than our population growth,” said Tim Cook, the council’s waste strategy coordinator.

Mr Cook said the amount of landfill waste could be cut from 52 per cent to single digits if the community supported the circularity project by changing behaviour.

Advancing efforts

A range of other waste streams in the Bega Valley were already being reused.

The Bega Group’s dairy factory boiler ran on wood waste, with the fly ash residue used as a lime replacement on pastures.

It has saved the company $200,000 a year in landfill fees.

A new evaporator, extracting milk minerals worth $5,000 a tonne from liquid whey waste, paid for itself in year, and 1.2 million litres of waste water daily irrigates hay pastures.

Seaweed researcher Pia Windberg would like to see the factory’s waste water put to a high-value use with the development of onshore seaweed farms.

“We’ve already ironed out the whole process of growing a unique Australian green seaweed, we know how to dry it, we know how to put it into foods, and we’ve actually just achieved our first export,” Dr Windberg said.

“It should be at least as big as 10 per cent of the wheat industry.

A $19-million National Centre for Circularity will be built in Bega in the next two years.

Bega Group contributed $5 million and the New South Wales government the remainder.