The Australian Government’s $20 million investment in advanced recycling technology will annually divert over 14,000 tonnes of soft plastics from South Australian landfills.
Recycling Plastics Australia in Kilburn will spearhead this initiative, cleaning and purifying soft plastics such as shopping bags, chip packets, and food wrappers to create feedstock for new soft plastic packaging.
This project, which will create 45 jobs, aims to develop an advanced recycling supply chain that transforms soft plastic waste back into packaging, the government said in a news release.
“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,” stated the Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek.
She added, “South Australians want to do their part to reduce their waste, reuse and recycle household products, and lighten their impact on the planet.”
Delivered in partnership with the South Australian Government, this project is among the first announced under the new Recycling Modernisation Fund Plastics Technology stream.
This $60 million stream funds solutions to increase Australia’s recycling and recovery rates for hard-to-recycle plastics, scale up collection schemes over time, and drive Australia’s transition to a safe circular economy.
“The South Australian government has been taking action to ban more and more unnecessary single-use plastic with bans on all soft plastic shopping bags and single-use plastic including coffee cups from 1 September this year,” said Deputy Premier of South Australia Susan Close.
“I applaud the Commonwealth for this significant investment which acknowledges both the need for this service, and the strength of South Australia’s existing resource recovery and recycling industry”
The Recycling Modernisation Fund is a national initiative expanding Australia’s capacity to sort, process, and remanufacture glass, plastic, tyres, paper, and cardboard.
With co-investment from all states and industry, the Fund will provide a $1 billion boost to Australian recycling efforts.
Nationally, the Federal Government is increasing recycling capacity by more than a million tonnes annually while creating over 3,000 jobs, including more than 600 in South Australia.
Peter Gregg, chair of Recycling Plastics Australia, emphasised the importance of this initiative: “Recycling Plastics Australia has a proud history leading the circular economy by recycling plastics that are difficult to process.”
“We are grateful that the Australian and South Australian Governments have supported this $40 million dollar project that is to transform soft plastics recycling in Australia.”
“This funding will see our Kilburn site in South Australia become the prominent soft-plastic recycling processor in the country, with materials recycled here and sold into local and global packaging markets,” Gregg noted.
This innovative Kilburn project coincides with Plastic Free July, a campaign encouraging Australians to reduce plastic pollution and waste.
The Australian Government is also supporting soft plastics recycling by improving packaging design through new national packaging laws that require packaging to be recoverable, reusable, recyclable, and reprocessable safely in line with circular economy principles.
“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,” Minister Plibersek added.
She added, “The Albanese Government is committed to working with states and territories to better manage waste and increase recycling capacity, including for soft plastics, and better protect our environment for future generations.”
