Repurposing packaging: new recycling facility for SA

An estimate of over 14,000 t of soft plastics will be diverted from South Australian landfills every year, due to a $20 million investment in advanced recycling technology by the Australian Government.

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 will deliver 45 jobs to the region.

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

The Australian Government is also supporting soft plastics recycling by changing the bounds of packaging design through 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.

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.

Susan Close, Deputy Premier of South Australia, said: “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.

“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.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Diane Labombarbe