I love getting wasted.
I just love getting wasted.
It's okay, I can say it.
My parents know; the neighbors know.
In fact, I'm wasted right now.
So I'll tell you a story.
When I graduated university,
standing at a crossroads in my life,
my mother said to me, "Mad,
do something that you love.
Do something that has value."
And so I thought to myself,
"How much value is there
in getting wasted?"
Fast forward a few months,
and I'm getting pretty wasted
down at the dump.
Oh yeah, the landfill in Nudgee.
If you haven't before,
I really recommend it;
it's great!
The deeper you go, the better it gets.
The longer you're there,
the more you realize
that this trash, this crap, this waste,
could be part of a novel,
innovative, sustainable
and immensely valuable
part of the economy.
I like to call it the waste economy,
and I think it's a way
we can all find value in getting wasted.
Millennials,
as individuals of my affliction
have so affectionately been labeled,
have inherited three
epic lifetime conditions.
The first, the rapid development
of science and technology,
a crumbling global ecosystem
and a fragile, disconnected
modern economy.
Splendid.
So the question facing my generation is,
Is there a way that economies
can increase profitability
using science and technology
while relying less on natural resources?
To me, as a biotech entrepreneur
and a notorious tight-ass,
the solution was obvious.
I am part of a new global economy,
one that is not only novel and innovative
but sustainable and immensely valuable.
It involves a complete repurposing
of agricultural waste
for use in products
of equal or greater value.
In fewer words - taking
one industry's by-product
and transforming it
into the raw product of another.
Now, this isn't my idea, not even close.
In fact, a few companies
have been integrating this concept
for quite a while now.
My personal favorite is Ecovative.
Ecovative is a company
in Green Island, New York,
who use agricultural waste to create
packaging and insulation materials.
Ecovative take the mycelium from mushrooms
and the plant fibers from seed husks,
fuse them together and create a material
similar in consistency
to Styrofoam or expanded polyethylene.
Ecovative's product has the capability
to turn the mushroom market
into the 28-billion-dollar
Styrofoam-replacement market.
That's a thousand times added value
and the eradication of one of the world's
most insidious pollutants.
Did we just dismantle
an established multi-billion dollar
environment-poisoning industry
by repurposing agricultural waste?
Did we do it in a way
that increases profitability
using science and technology
to rely less on natural resources?
Now, don't be fooled into thinking
these magic mushrooms are a once-off.
There are an abundance
of local startups and researchers
working on turning your waste into gold.
In Brisbane alone,
sugar cane mulch into pharmaceuticals,
rotten fruit into A-grade cosmetics
and coffee grinds into diesel -
just to name a few.
But ... yes, that's right,
I can smell the pessimists
in the audience.
"You don't know what you
are talking about young lady.
You think you can waltz in here
with your iPhones and your face flicks
and tell me that some clever apples
can end ecological crisis?"
Well, that's sort of my point.
Crisis need not be the obstacle
of a profitable economy;
crisis should be the catalyst
that pushes them forwards
towards permanent, self-revolutionizing,
self-extended reproduction.
No.
The fallacy lies in the assumption
that the cost of profit is tremendous
amounts of polluting waste
stagnating in our landfills
and filling up our oceans.
So, the economics of it all:
inefficiency is the enemy of capitalism.
Old mate father of capitalism,
Adam Smith, once said,
"Any inefficiency
that reduces profit-making
shall be eliminated by the market."
Now, I'm sure we don't have
to resurrect old Adam to tell us
that the presence of waste in an economy
represents a pretty huge inefficiency,
especially when the
management of that waste
is costing us 350 billion
dollars annually.
That's more than the annual aggregate
spend of the Australian government -
or whatever they're calling
themselves these days.
Yes, that's right,
each year we produce
2.2 billion tons of landfill.
Now, if my math is correct,
that's about [300 kilograms]
allocated to each and every one
of us on the planet.
Why do you need [300 kilograms] of excess
just to mindlessly produce and consume?
This is the hidden
deadweight loss of your existence,
and it's not going to stay hidden
for much longer.
See, this concept is actually something
that's ingrained in our evolution,
a concept that has driven us
to the top of the food chain.
Take this bison for example.
Back in the Neolithic Age,
we had the flesh for meat,
the hide for clothing,
the bones for tools, teeth for jewelry,
and whatever's left: dog food.
A contemporary may see this
as taking one industry's by-product
and transforming it
into the raw product of another.
See, this concept is something
we are so familiar with,
but why are we so comfortable
with avoiding it?
If we just repurpose 20%
of our agricultural waste in Australia,
we would be looking at a total
economic injection of 150 billion dollars,
based off waste cost saved
and new products created -
not to mention the tremendous benefit
to the environment.
The 21st century has seen
some of the greatest developments
in science and technology,
developments that will have
undefined influence on our futures.
Yet something that perplexes me is
how we as a society
are able to identify something
so abstract as ripples in space-time
a billion light-years away,
and yet we remain so stumped
on the concept that by producing and
consuming in the same unsustainable ways,
we'll continue to produce
the same unsustainable results.
Here we are, happily sitting on
the horizon of a crisis so unfathomable,
characterized by inefficient production
systems and endless amounts of waste.
Alas, the problem does not lie
in the lack of science
or even the lack of innovation;
it lies in the fact that it would take
an enormous restructuring
of the global economy
to fix this fatal design flaw.
We would need
to reinvigorate supply chains
that haven't really been altered
since the Industrial Revolution,
tackling corporations, governments
and social systems as we know them.
Simple task, really.
Personally, I think
we are all far too complacent.
We are due for a new
economic paradigm shift.
Revolution is born out of necessity.
Agricultural revolution,
industrial revolution.
Now it is time for a waste revolution.
Now, this reality doesn't have to seem
like some far-off distant utopia.
As we know from our economics
high-school classes,
supply is so sorely influenced by demand.
We need to demand more
from our producers and suppliers,
demand they see the social,
economic and environmental utility
of putting the environment
above the bottom line.
We need to invest in companies
doing something with their waste,
reinvigorating it back
into the supply chain,
because I can assure you,
you will see the dividends.
We need to support
these local startups and researchers
that really are just trying
to change the world without the fuss.
And most of all, we need
to stop sitting on our hands
before we let this toxic complacency
become our demise.
So, it's effective, it's necessary
and it's going to make us billions.
So come on, Brisbane, it's a Saturday.
You tell me what is stopping you
from getting wasted.
(Applause)