Recycling solar panels directly reduces domestic waste-to-landfill streams and could enable long-term potential benefits across multiple environmental, technological and strategic imperatives.
ATSE’s submission provides analysis on opportunities to advance Australia’s critical minerals industry so that it delivers greater economic value through developing midstream and downstream processing while benefiting regional communities and Traditional Owners through a robust social licence framework.
The submission urged the Australian Government to develop the infrastructure and skilled workforce required by the industry, embed a circular economy approach, and support operations owned by Traditional Owners.
The 2023 update to the Critical Minerals List provides an opportunity to recognise elements of increasing importance for decarbonising the economy, and to align with global as well as domestic aspirations.
Investment in low-impact, cost-effective technologies will assist in addressing the urgent need to increase the success rate of discovering new, internationally competitive Australian mineral deposits in increasingly challenging geological, environmental and social conditions.