New soft plastic recycling technology for South Australia

The Australian Government has invested $20 million in advanced recycling technology that it says will annually divert over 14,000 tonnes of soft plastics from South Australian landfills.

Recycling Plastics Australia in Kilburn will clean and purify soft plastics such as shopping bags, chip packets and food wrappers to create feedstock for new soft plastic packaging. This will help Australia to develop an advanced recycling supply chain that will turn soft plastic waste back into packaging.

The project, delivered in partnership with the South Australian Government, is among the first announced under the new Recycling Modernisation Fund Plastics Technology stream.

The $60 million stream funds solutions that increase Australia’s recycling and recovery rates for hard-to-recycle plastics, enables collection schemes to be scaled up over time and aims to help drive Australia’s transition to a safe circular economy.

The Recycling Modernisation Fund is a national initiative expanding Australia’s capacity to sort, process and remanufacture glass, plastic, tyres, paper and cardboard. When combined with co-investment from all states and industry, the Recycling Modernisation Fund will give a $1 billion boost to Australian recycling, according to the government.

The Australian Government is also supporting soft plastics recycling by improving packaging design through new national packaging laws. These laws will require packaging to be designed to be recovered, reused, recycled and reprocessed safely in line with circular economy principles.

Nationally, the federal government is increasing recycling capacity in Australia by more than a million tonnes every year while creating over 3000 jobs, including over 600 in South Australia.

The innovative Kilburn project has been announced during Plastic Free July — a campaign that appeals to all Australians to do their bit to reduce plastic pollution and waste.

“South Australians want to do their part to reduce their waste, reuse and recycle household products, and lighten their impact on the planet,” said Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek. “This funding is supporting new recycling infrastructure, helping to solve challenges with plastic waste and stop soft plastics from going to landfill, while also supporting jobs and industry.

“It’s great to see state governments committed to getting soft plastics out of landfill and working with industry to see a circular economy for soft plastics in Australia. This benefits the environment and the economy. For every job in landfill, there are three jobs in recycling.”

“Recycling Plastics Australia has a proud history leading the circular economy by recycling plastics that are difficult to process,” said Peter Gregg, Chair, Recycling Plastics Australia. “We are grateful that the Australian and South Australian Governments have supported this $40 million project that is to transform soft plastics recycling in Australia.”

Image credit: iStock.com/varniccha kajai