PLENARY SPEECH 1
Talk title: Solid waste management practices in Australia: case studies
Transnational waste recycling is widespread and carries environmental and economic consequences for exporting and importing nations. Existing research concentrates on management in importing countries, with limited attention to exporting contexts. Using Australian waste export data and geospatial analysis, transnational recycling is examined from the exporter perspective. Findings show no significant association between environmental indicators and export destinations. Data gaps obscure the fate of exported waste, constraining informed decision-making. Greater bilateral data sharing and tracking are recommended to clarify impacts and improve accountability. Many countries rely on policy interventions to improve solid waste recycling rates, yet evaluating their effectiveness remains challenging due to complex social contexts and demanding data requirements. Repeated measures analysis of variance is adopted to assess Australia’s solid waste policies, offering a novel approach that accommodates different policy start times. Results show that regions implementing combined policy measures achieve stronger improvements in recycling rates, whereas regions without policy intervention exhibit a consistent decline in recycling performance over time.
Using historical data to assess illegal dumping risk can improve waste management in low-density areas with limited enforcement capacity. Geospatial analysis and machine learning are employed to enhance risk classification accuracy. By integrating dumping locations with road characteristics, high-risk areas are refined to specific road segments rather than broad zones.
Speaker:
Dr. Jian Zuo is a Professor in Sustainable Construction at the School of Civil Engineering and Construction Management, Adelaide University. His main research interests are related to health and sustainable built environment via both technical (e.g. smart technologies) and managerial (e.g. policy intervention and behavioural change) means. In particular, he has undertaken extensive research on health and safety issues in the construction industry at both micro and macro levels. These include general dust, silica dust and Particulate Matter emissions derived from construction activities; and air pollution issues derived from manufacturing of construction materials. As the lead researcher, he has been part of team to deliver significant outcomes in a series of competitive grants in Australia such as Industrial Transformation Training Centre, Discovery Projects and Linkage Projects funded by the Australian Research Council as well as many other national key projects (e.g. Natural Hazards Research Australia, NCCARF Climate Change Adaptation Research Grants, Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute). He has long been engaged in the study of ecological towns, green buildings and sustainable development of the construction industry. He has published more than 100 papers in top journals, including more than 80 journal papers indexed by SCI and SSCI, Google Scholar indexed more than 37,000, and the H-index is 102. Twelve papers are listed as hot papers/highly cited papers by Incites Essential Science Indicators (ESI).