Federal government backs $40 million soft plastic recycling centre in Kilburn

Recycling Plastics Australia has received $20 million from the Federal Government to develop a new facility that will recover 14,000 tonnes of soft plastics from local landfills each year.

As announced today, the Kilburn-based company is one of the first recipients of funding under the new Recycling Modernisations Fund Plastics Technology Program – a $60 million investment program designed to support Australia’s recycling and recovery rates.

At its Kilburn plant, Recycling Plastics Australia will clean and purify soft plastics such as shopping bags, crisp packets and food packaging.

These materials will then be processed into raw materials for the production of new, soft plastic packaging.

Recycling Plastics Australia has been processing plastics into granules and pellets for plastics manufacturers for 40 years. In 2018, the company underwent a multi-million dollar refurbishment of its facilities to integrate infrared visualisation systems and optical sorters.

The company claims to be able to recycle 40,000 tons of polymer waste per year. Its CEO is Stephen Scherer.

The federal government said the project – carried out in partnership with the state government – ​​would create 45 new jobs at the company.

The Recycling Modernization Fund is a nationwide initiative to increase the ability of businesses to sort, process and remanufacture hard-to-recycle materials such as tires, plastics, paper and cardboard.

The initiative follows the closure in November 2022 of major soft plastic recycling initiative REDcycle, which fell apart after it was revealed that soft plastics that consumers returned to supermarkets for recycling were instead going to warehouses.

At the time, there were six REDcycle sites operating in South Australia and following the failure of the initiative, major supermarkets Coles and Woolworths stopped accepting soft plastics at their recycling terminals.

Peter Gregg, CEO of Recycling Plastics Australia, said his company “has a proud and leading position in the circular economy when it comes to recycling difficult-to-recycle plastics”.

“We are grateful that the Australian and South Australian Governments have supported this $40 million project which aims to transform soft plastics recycling in Australia,” Mr Gregg said.

“This funding will enable our Kilburn facility in South Australia to become the leading soft plastic processor in the country, with materials being recycled and sold into local and global packaging markets.”

Deputy Premier Susan Close said the State Government intends to ban more single-use plastics from September 1 this year and that the measures will support the state’s recycling industry.

“Increasing equipment and staff to take on the challenge of recycling soft plastics is the first step towards rebuilding the infrastructure we need for an effective supermarket take-back programme,” she said.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the funding would help “solve plastic waste problems and prevent soft plastics from ending up in landfills.”

“It’s great to see the state government stepping up to divert soft plastics from landfill and working with industry to implement a circular economy for soft plastics in Australia,” Plibersek said.

“This benefits the environment and the economy. For every job in landfill, three jobs are created in recycling.”