Retno Palupi

As part of the broader planning framework for Tottenham, this section focuses on the Enabling Circular Economy strategy. Tottenham sits within one of Melbourne’s key western circular-economy corridors, yet its local actors: NEXTDC, Olima, Manhari Recycling, and CRDC operate in isolation. Upstream digital infrastructure, midstream repair, and downstream recycling lack coordination, visibility, and shared identity.

This project activates industrial symbiosis by linking these industries through shared material, energy, and data loops, and by proposing Green Collect into a civic-facing node that makes circular work visible and accessible to the public.

The first mechanism, Cluster and Connect Circular Industry Hubs, builds the framework for industrial symbiosis by linking repairers, recyclers, manufacturers, and NEXTDC through shared material, energy, and data loops. A Council-led exchange platform coordinates these flows, enabling collaboration and reducing isolation between circular actors.

The second mechanism, Celebrate the Dirty Work of a Circular City, focuses on visibility and community connection. A shared circular identity and an expanded Green Collect civic node introduce workshops, signage, and demonstrations that make repair and recycling accessible, valued, and understood across Tottenham.

This section shows how the Industrial Symbiosis strategy fits within Tottenham’s wider planning framework. While other strategies focus on protecting industrial land and aligning freight with place, this strategy responds to the hidden, fragmented nature of circular activity. It identifies the systemic gaps, isolated repair and recycling industries, low public visibility, and limited collaboration, and outlines how collective mechanisms can connect these actors, making circular work visible, understood, and integrated into the precinct’s overall transition.