A $40m investment in advanced mechanical recycling for soft plastics will see the construction of a new processing facility in South Australia at Recycling Plastics Australia’s Kilburn premises, with the application of proprietary technology supplied by PreOne.
The Australian Government has invested $20 million in the initiative, which will see some 14,000 tonnes of soft plastics diverted from South Australian landfills every year. The project, which includes the construction of a facility that will ultimately be capable of processing food-grade recycled content, will deliver 45 jobs.
Recycling Plastics Australia already has a history of recycling plastics that are difficult to process, with an established mixed rigid plastics recycling facility processing 100 tonnes a day. The new plant will be located at the same site in Kilburn.
Peter Gregg, chair at Recycling Plastics 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.”
PKN spoke to Tim Welsh, CEO of PreOne, the company supplying the European-sourced proprietary advanced recycling technology.
Welsh explained that initially the feedstock for the new facility will come from post-industrial and post-agricultural sources, but ultimately, as post-consumer soft plastics collection ramps up, it will clean and purify soft plastics such as shopping bags, chip packets and food wrappers to create feedstock for new soft plastic packaging.
Welsh, who established PreOne in 2023 following a successful career in packaging – including a stint on the APCO Board – said the new plant should be up and running by mid-2025. The company would be looking to replicating the model in other states.
“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Recycling Plastics Australia on this project of national and global significance. We commend the vision of RPA general manager Stephen Scherer for his commitment to leading the industry to provide high quality solutions for sustainable polymers.”
Welsh noted that the technology PreOne has sourced and developed for Recycling Plastics Australia is the first of its kind in the ANZ region.
“As the exclusive licence holders for the region, we are keen to partner with other companies who would like to set up similar operations,” Welsh said.
This project, delivered in partnership with the South Australian Government, is among the first announced under the new Recycling Modernisation Fund Plastics Technology stream.
Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, said, “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.”
The government’s $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 helps drive Australia’s transition to a safe circular economy.
Deputy Premier of South Australia, Susan Close, 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.
“Scaling up equipment and personnel to tackle the challenge of soft plastic recycling is the first step into rebuilding the infrastructure we need for an effective supermarket ‘take back’ scheme is essential.”
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.
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.
