PET facility marks first year in operation with industry award

The Albury-Wodonga Circular Plastics Australia (PET) facility is the largest PET plastic recycling plant in Australia. The site commenced operations in March 2022 and offers a closed loop for plastic beverage bottles collected through NSW’s Return and Earn container deposit scheme as well as household recycling bins.

Cleanaway’s Chief Financial Officer Paul Binfield said, “This bottle-to-bottle plastic recycling facility brings the circular economy on-shore to Australia giving everyone a chance to participate in making a sustainable future possible by recycling their bottles and buying beverages in recycled plastic packaging.”

“Together with our partners, Cleanaway is working on a network of plastics recycling facilities integrated with our leading collection and sorting infrastructure to provide our customers with the most sustainable and circular solution for their plastic recycling.”

Approximately one billion bottles or 30,000 tonnes of PET are turned into recycled PET (rPET) through the Albury-Wodonga facility annually. This substantially increases the amount of rPET produced in Australia each year from local waste.

A second PET facility with recycling capacity similar to the Albury-Wodonga plant is under construction in Melbourne. It is due to commence operations in the first half of 2023.

CPA is also planning a PET facility in East Perth which was announced in 2021 and received a $9.5 million grant funding through the Australian Government’s Recycling Modernisation Fund and the Western Australian Government.

The East Perth facility is expected to process over 17,000 tonnes of locally collected kerbside plastic waste into nearly 14,000 tonnes of resin and polymer flake for use in food packaging as well as household and industrial products.

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