Public-private partnerships and implications for a circular economy in Australia

This paper is a preliminary attempt to examine whether circular economy principles can be incorporated into PPP frameworks. Given the fact that many PPPs are large in scope and long-term in nature, the incorporation of these principles can yield substantial benefits to society as a whole. However, the paper confines itself to PPPs in Australia. The rest of this paper is presented in five parts. The next section provides a brief overview of PPPs in Australia, followed by a short section providing a justification for PPPs in Australia. Section 4 then examines PPPs and their implications for a circular economy. This is followed by a fairly detailed presentation of a PPP case study in Australia, namely, the Waratah Train PPP Project, where an attempt has been made to examine to what extent circular economy principles were adopted in the design and delivery of this PPP. The last section provides a discussion that examines whether PPPs have the potential to incorporate circular economy principles into the project structure. It should be noted that the conclusions here are only aimed at stimulating further examination and discussion since these are based only on the findings of one case study.