New sustainability initiative in Newcastle aiming for zero waste

When local social entrepreneurs Bianca Bartlett, Siobhan Donges and Thomas Michel brainstormed earlier this year on their new project The Full Circle Collective, they were keen to provide a positive alternative to Australia’s throwaway culture.

---

We’re living in this funny historical bubble where products and materials are getting more scarce and expensive, yet our rates of throwing stuff out continue to grow,” Thomas said. Bianca added, “The way most products are made and consumed today - whether it’s clothing, packaging, or food - is simply unsustainable. We need to work on new solutions for the new century.”

These concerns motivated the establishment of The Full Circle Collective, a new trading and community space

opening from Saturday 26 October at 437 Hunter Street. The Full Circle Collective is a not-for-profit initiative of local

environmental charity Purple Card Project and is dedicated to providing a commercial platorm for all products and

services involving upcycling, repair, reuse or resource recovery. “Our vision is a world free of waste,” Siobhan

explained. “We’re championing the principles of the circular economy by designing out waste, keeping resources in

use as long as possible, and regenerating natural systems.”

In addition to this, The Full Circle Collective will be partnering with local organisation Shared World Collective to

launch the ‘Shared World Tea Table’ within the space. Katrina Gulbrandsen of Shared World Collective said, “The Tea

Table encourages community to come together, exchange skills, and learn new ways to live creatively and sustainably.

A place to grab a cup of ethically sourced tea, relax, chat, mend, or join a participatory art project.”

The Full Circle Collective is encouraging local suppliers in particular to partner with them, including small businesses,

community organisations and sole traders who share their ethos of sustainability. Some of their current partners

include Resourceful Living, a plastics recycling and manufacturing business based at Kurri Kurri, and Food2Soil, a

female-led organic fertiliser company that uses food waste as their feedstock. Another local partner is Kwila, a

community-based rehab program based at Hexham that provides meaningful work to participants through upcycling

used pale􀆩es into furniture.

The Full Circle Collective co-founder Thomas said much effort was put in to doing a fully circular fitout in the store,

with no new materials used and minimal waste. “We had to hunt around for some materials, and we did have to buy

some items new like nails and glue,” he said, “But almost everything was salvaged from demolition companies,

decommissioned office spaces and second-hand markets. It was surprisingly easy and cheap, and it demonstrates just

how much valuable material needlessly ends up in landfill.”

The pop-up retail space has been made possible by the generous support of local charity Embrace People & Place,

which coordinates collaboration between organisations at 437 Hunter Street and shares the vision of combining

positive social impact with environmental sustainability. Bianca finished: “We’re very grateful to Embrace People &

Place for providing the pop-up space for The Full Circle Collective – without this support, our project would have

never been possible.”