Latest technology boosting Victoria's plastics waste management

Martogg, one of Australia’s largest privately owned plastics recycling businesses, has invested in new technology that identifies and sorts post-consumer PET bottles and containers at its plastics recycling facility in Dandenong South.

The containers are granulated and thoroughly washed, producing a high-quality flake that can be transformed back into food-grade recycled pellets for use in PET packaging commonly found on supermarket shelves, like water and beverage bottles, meat trays and packaging for bakery items.

The multimillion-dollar facility has been upgraded with the optical sorting technology with the help of $6 million in funding from the Victorian and federal governments.

The plant expansion has resulted in a plant capable of processing 40,000 tonnes of post-consumer PET bottles per year, which has enabled Martogg to produce 17,300 tonnes of food-grade PET flake tonnes a year, or the equivalent of over 800 million PET bottles.

This is one of 13 jointly funded recycling projects completed since 2021, nine of which target plastics. These projects have increased Victoria’s capacity to process an additional 80,000 tonnes of plastics per annum. Martogg’s project is significant as it contributes over a quarter of this additional capacity.

“We want to reshape Victoria, where we use recycled materials anywhere and everywhere — from the roads you drive on to the bottles we drink from,” said Victorian Minister for Environment Steve Dimopoulos.

“I know Victorians want to do their part to reduce their waste, reuse and recycle household products. That’s why we are supporting new recycling infrastructure, helping to solve challenges with plastic waste and stop soft plastics from going to landfill, while supporting innovation and delivering jobs,” said Federal Minister for Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek.

“It’s great to see state governments committed to getting plastics out of landfill and working with industry to see a circular economy for plastics in Australia. This is great for the environment, but it’s also great for the economy and jobs growth.”

Image credit: iStock.com/aykuterd