Feds back $40 million soft plastic recycling centre at Kilburn
A $20 million federal government investment will support the creation of a soft plastic recycling centre in Adelaide’s north.
Recycling Plastics Australia has received $20 million from the federal government to advance its new facility that’s tipped to divert 14,000 tonnes of soft plastics from local landfills each year.
Announced today, the Kilburn-based business is one of the first recipients of funding under the new Recycling Modernisations Fund Plastics Technology stream – a $60 million investment program to back Australian recycling and recovery rates.
At its Kilburn factory, Recycling Plastics Australia will clean and purify soft plastics like shopping bags, chip packets and food wrappers.
These materials will then be transformed into feedstock for new soft plastic packaging.
Recycling Plastics Australia has been turning plastics into granulated and pellet stocks for plastics manufacturers for 40 years. The company underwent a multi-million-dollar refit of its facilities in 2018 to integrate infrared visualisation systems and optical sorters.
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The company claims to be able to recycle 40,000 tonnes of polymer waste per year and is helmed by general manager Stephen Scherer.
The federal government said the project – delivered in partnership with the state government – will create 45 new jobs at the company.
The Recycling Modernisation Fund is a national initiative to expand businesses’ capacity to sort, process and remanufacture hard-to-recycle materials like tyres, plastics, paper and cardboard.
It follows the winding up of major soft plastics recycling initiative REDcycle in November 2022, which fell apart after it was revealed that soft plastics consumers had returned to supermarkets to be recycled were instead put into storage.
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There were six REDcycle facilities in South Australia at the time, and following the initiative’s collapse major supermarkets Coles and Woolworths stopped accepting soft plastics at recycling terminals.
Recycling Plastics Australia chair Peter Gregg said his company had “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 project that is to transform soft plastics recycling in Australia,” Gregg said.
“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.”
Deputy Premier Susan Close said the state government was set to ban more single-use plastics from 1 September this year, and that this funding would support the state’s 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,” she said.
Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek said the funding would help “solve challenges with plastic waste and stop soft plastics from going to landfill”.
“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,” Plibersek said.
“This benefits the environment and the economy. For every job in landfill, there are three jobs in recycling.”
