The Hunter is collaboratively working towards developing the local circular economy. As part of this, we have developed the Hunter and Central Coast Circular Economy Roadmap which showcases our successes and sets a path for the next 12 months for us to collaborate and accelerate towards our longer-term shared vision of being Australia’s leading regional circular economy.

With a view of our region’s strengths and challenges, we have co-designed this Roadmap alongside our stakeholder ecosystem. This Roadmap prioritises initiatives based on their feasibility and potential to create local benefits, providing an overview of the key circular economy projects that are happening across the Hunter and Central Coast region.

Our current project priorities highlighted in the roadmap include working towards a more circular procurement process, a circular metrics strategy to enable evidence-based decision making and measurement of progress and facilitating the trade of reusable products through a circular economy concierge. These enabling initiatives will commence over the next 12 months and will provide our region with the ability to identify and develop the skills needed for circular industries and systems.

Local Government representatives, are uniquely placed to provide strategic direction, connect stakeholders across the local ecosystem to collaborate and share knowledge, and remove some of the barriers to support circular economy progress at scale. The Hunter Joint Organisation (Hunter JO) as Local Government representatives will support these initiatives as project partners or through enabling initiatives with the collaboration and funding from the NSW State Government.

The broader local circular economy eco-system that includes Federal Government, State Government, University of Newcastle, community, and industry associations will lead initiatives and partner through the collaborative Hunter Central Coast Circular Economy Facilitators Group (CE Facilitators Group).

The Hunter is currently experiencing a time of economic evolution and the circular economy provides an opportunity to improve and diversify by providing and supporting new industries and jobs for the region.

For more information about the Hunter JO’s Circular Economy program, check out their Hunter Circular project page.