Stuart White – The Conversation

Boy Anthony/Shutterstock

March 5, 2025

Australians generate mountains of waste, and we need more help to recycle and reuse it

Melita Jazbec, University of Technology Sydney; Monique Retamal, University of Technology Sydney; Nick Florin, University of Technology Sydney, and Stuart White, University of Technology Sydney

A new Productivity Commission report finds regulations and costs are slowing Australia’s progress in becoming a circular economy.

Oroville Dam in California, where water levels had fallen 30% by 2014. Dam image from www.shutterstock.com

February 25, 2016

What California can learn from Australia’s 15‑year millennium drought

Stuart White, University of Technology Sydney; Andrea Turner, University of Technology Sydney, and Joanne Chong, University of Technology Sydney

California’s drought is dragging on into its fifth year. What can the state learn from Australia’s 15-year millennium drought?

Farming makes a huge contribution to global greenhouse emissions, mainly through methane from livestock. Billy Hathorn/Wikimedia Commons

March 9, 2015

Meat the future: new book sets out the effects of the world’s diet

Stuart White, University of Technology Sydney and Dana Cordell, University of Technology Sydney

Meat uses a lot of resources - between three and ten times as much as plants for the same amount of protein. The rich world might be slowly losing its taste for meat, but the developing world isn’t.

In most states, the issue of container deposit legislation has festered for decades. Brian Finestone/Shutterstock.com

February 24, 2015

Spin the bottle: the fraught politics of container deposit schemes

Stuart White, University of Technology Sydney

Four decades after South Australia’s container deposit scheme began, New South Wales has finally overcome industry resistance and launched its own. Could the rest of the country now follow suit?

Plastic bottles often end up on the beach where the plastic can remain for decades, harming sea life and the fish we eat. senderweb/Flickr

September 19, 2012

National container deposit scheme crushed by Australian Senate

Damien Giurco, University of Technology Sydney and Stuart White, University of Technology Sydney

For the past 30 years, South Australians have lived in a state with a “container deposit scheme”. This means on small bottles or cans of water, soft drink, juice or alcohol, consumers pay a 10c deposit…

Liquid politics: fights over water will heat up unless its management is democratised. Flickr/Kyle Horner

June 10, 2012

Challenge 2: Water; a local resource, a global problem

Stuart White, University of Technology Sydney

Welcome to the State of the Future series. This series addresses 15 global challenges posed by the Millennium Project, an international non-profit think-tank collecting responses for 40 nodes worldwide…

Manure is a great source of phosphorus, but we’ve largely removed it from agriculture. Flickr/Amy Alana Star

March 1, 2012

Time for policy action on global phosphorus security

Stuart White, University of Technology Sydney and Dana Cordell, University of Technology Sydney

Without phosphorus we cannot produce food. Yet even as pressure mounts on this critical non-renewable resource, there is a startling lack of global governance of its use and supply. If no one takes responsibility…

Your cafe breakfast was brought to you by phosphorus, but we’re running out. caccamo/Flickr

September 8, 2011

Securing phosphorus: food for thought, and food for the future

Dana Cordell, University of Technology Sydney; Stuart White, University of Technology Sydney, and Tim Prior, University of Technology Sydney

Take a moment to think about your next meal. It will contain phosphorus. You contain phosphorus. In fact, you can’t survive without phosphorus: it’s in our DNA and our cell membranes. Nothing can survive…

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