Visy commissions Australia's "most sustainable" glass furnace

Visy has announced the commissioning of what it says is Australia’s most energy-efficient glass furnace at its recycling and remanufacturing facility in Sydney. Officially opened on Thursday, the $150 million investment in Penrith is the country’s first oxygen-only fuelled furnace, using less than half the energy of the one it replaced.

“That’s the equivalent of saving enough energy to heat over 32,000 Sydney homes every year,” said Visy Chairman Anthony Pratt. “Our Penrith site is the only glass bottle and jar manufacturing factory in New South Wales. It produces over 800 million glass containers every year in support of Australia’s world-class food and beverage companies like Vegemite, Cottee’s Jam, Toohey’s New and Bundaberg Ginger Beer.”

The facility will also use advanced recycled cullet pre-heating technology to significantly increase the use of recycled glass in Australia’s glass bottle manufacturing sector.

“This new technology is part of our program to make glass containers with an average 70% recycled content across Australia and New Zealand,” Pratt said.

The factory takes recycled glass from household recycle bins and the Return and Earn container deposit scheme to make the new bottles and jars.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns welcomed the investment in Western Sydney manufacturing.

“We welcome Visy’s vote of confidence in Western Sydney and NSW. The bottles and jars made here will end up in the hands of millions of Aussies each year,” he said.

The investment is part of Pratt’s 2021 commitment to invest $2 billion over the ensuing decade to reduce landfill and help fight climate change while creating and sustaining thousands of green-collar Australian manufacturing jobs.

Image caption: NSW Premier Chris Minns with Visy Chairman Anthony Pratt.