Resource Recovery Archives | Page 3 of 11

‘Operation Collect’ sweeps 100,000 tonnes of waste from flood-impacted Brisbane

Communities - Our Services - Partnerships - Resource Recovery

May 3, 2022

Highlights

Cleanaway and Brisbane City Council (BCC) sprang into action to assist in the flood clean-up operations to manage over 100,000 tonnes of waste that was generated by the flooding, including the use of temporary sites to remove flood waste from Brisbane’s streets as part of ‘Operation Collect’.

Tags: Communities

Highlights

On the morning of 28 February 2022, record volumes of rain caused the Brisbane River to peak at its highest level since 2011 and within three days, up to 18,000 homes across southeast Queensland were inundated.

Pictured: Adrian Schrinner, Brisbane Lord Mayor addresses media to discuss ‘Operation Collect’ at Cleanaway’s Mt Coot-tha temporary site.

As most of the commercial waste infrastructure in the region was impacted by the floods, BCC commissioned seven temporary resource recovery centres across the city to assist residents with stockpiling waste from recovery and clean-up work.

Cleanaway operated three of these temporary sites, with Mt Coot-tha and Eagle Farm being the two largest sites set up for ‘Operation Collect’.

Pictured: Residents queuing up to unload flood waste at Chandler Resource Recovery Centre, one of the facilities operated by Cleanaway.

Pictured: Cleanaway staff using loaders to gather flood waste in the surge pit at Willawong Resource Recovery Centre. Surge pits provide temporary waste storage space during counter disaster operations.

Cleanaway operates five facilities for BCC – Brisbane Landfill at Rochedale and four resource recovery centres at Chandler, Ferny Grove, Nudgee and Willawong. During the flood crisis, we expanded our efforts to operate 10 facilities in total, including the three temporary resource recovery centres set up specially for ‘Operation Collect’.

BCC commissioned Cleanaway to operate two former landfills in Nudgee and Willawong. Together with Brisbane Landfill and resource recovery centres in Nudgee and Willawong, we were able to facilitate after-hours disposal and bulk haulage transfer 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We also offered a bespoke household hazardous waste collection service for the council’s street clean-up crews. A dedicated phone number was created for the crews to call the Cleanaway hotline whenever hazardous waste was identified at any of the temporary resource recovery centres. Our Liquid and Technical Services team from Narangba was on hand to assist with this service.

Pictured: Cleanaway’s Narangba Liquid and Technical Services team members inspecting hazardous waste before removing it from the Mt Coot-tha temporary site.

Pictured: Cleanaway fleet delivering flood waste collected from the Resource Recovery Centres to Brisbane Landfill.

During the peak of the flood recovery efforts, we tripled our workforce from 89 employees to approximately 250, including external contractors.

We deployed skilled labour from other Cleanaway sites such as New Chum and Bowhill Road. We were also supported by our Queensland Solid Waste Services teams who provided extra drivers required for the non-stop operations.

Our regional managers, safety and environment business partners and finance and administration teams were all hands on deck to ensure coordination and management of the clean-up effort.

Cleanaway processed approximately 80% to 90% of the 100,000 tonnes of flood waste with residual volumes handled by external facilities contracted by BCC. The operation ran for a total of six weeks, starting in late February and ending in early April.

Pictured: Cleanaway’s high productivity B-double vehicles tipping flood waste at Brisbane Landfill.

Each year, Cleanaway manages over half a million tonnes of waste and recyclables for BCC – the largest local government in Australia.

Cleanaway and BCC officially entered into the Resource Recovery Innovation Alliance (RRIA) in 2018 to manage the city’s post collection infrastructure including the operation of the Brisbane Landfill and four resource recovery centres in Chandler, Ferny Grove, Nudgee and Willawong. RRIA also oversees the bulk logistics of waste and resources flows within this network as well as with third party facilities.

Contact us to learn more about how we’re making a sustainable future possible for communities and businesses across Australia.

Breakthroughs in onshore plastic recycling in Australia

Industry Updates - Resource Recovery

March 21, 2022

Highlights

Cleanaway is delivering the recycling solutions to close the loop on plastic waste. It's called the circular economy for plastic and we're investing in the technology and facilities with our partners right here in Australia to make it happen.

Tags: Circular economy

Highlights

Did you know Australians use nearly 2 million tonnes of plastic polymers every year, and that most of it goes to landfill?

Cleanaway is delivering the recycling solutions to close the loop on plastic waste. It’s called the circular economy for plastic and we’re investing in the technology and facilities with our partners right here in Australia to make it happen. Here’s how it works.

Cleanaway operates the sorting facilities that processes the material from commingled recycling bins and container deposit schemes. Once sorted into the different plastic types (also known as polymers), we work with our partners to use mechanical and chemical recycling to turn those polymers into something new that can be used again and again.

Your drink bottle is made from PET plastic. Cleanaway is working with Asahi, Coca-cola and PACT group to go bottle to bottle, so the next drink you buy is made from the same plastic as the last one. Our PET recycling facility in Albury is the largest in Australia, with another being built in Melbourne.

Harder plastics like ice cream tubs are made from PP while milk and laundry liquid bottles are HDPE. Both of these plastics will be recycled at a facility we are currently building in Melbourne, to be recycled into packaging for new consumer products.

Recycling soft plastics like LDPE, such as your chip packets and bread bags are much harder to mechanically recycle.

We’re working on an Australian first study with our partners, Qenos to use chemical recycling for soft plastics so even that can be recycled into new food grade packaging. This new advanced form of soft plastic recycling could mean we’re able to recycle plastic that would otherwise go to landfill. It also means we can preserve more of earth’s finite resources. For Cleanaway, that future is now for Australia’s onshore circular economy for plastic. Everyone has a role to play; from consumers to retailers, manufacturers and recyclers.

We’re all working to make a sustainable future possible together. Contact us to learn more about our soft plastic collection for businesses.

World-class recycling plant opens in Albury-Wodonga

Partnerships - Resource Recovery

March 11, 2022

Highlights

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.

Tags: Plastics

Highlights

The largest PET recycling plant in the country is now up and running and will substantially reduce Australia’s plastic waste by recycling the equivalent of around 1 billion PET beverage bottles each year.

The $45 million plant in Albury-Wodonga has boosted regional jobs and is helping to build a domestic circular economy, along with increasing the amount of locally sourced and recycled PET in Australia by two thirds, from around 30,000 tonnes to over 50,000 tonnes per annum.

The world-class facility is a joint venture partnership between Pact Group, Cleanaway Waste Management Ltd, Asahi Beverages, and new partner Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP). While competitors in the beverage market, CCEP and Asahi Beverages have come together for this joint venture to deliver a significant increase in the volume of PET plastics recycled in Australia.

During its construction and installation, the plant supported around 225 jobs and will employ about 40 people, mostly Albury-Wodonga locals, for its 24/7 operations.

About 30,000 tonnes of PET will be recycled each year and will become recycled raw material to produce new beverage bottles plus other food and beverage packaging in Australia, contributing to closing the loop on recycling.

Further important environmental benefits will be delivered by the plant, including reducing Australia’s reliance on virgin plastic and recycled plastic imports. Solar energy is used to power part of the facility, and a water treatment unit and rainwater tanks will reuse and recycle as much water on site as possible.

Today, Federal Minister for the Environment, the Hon. Sussan Ley MP and NSW Minister for Environment and Heritage, the Hon James Griffin MP, and the Mayor of Albury City, Cr Kylie King officially opened the facility, which is located at the Nexus Precinct, 10km north of Albury-Wodonga’s CBD in NSW and is among the first businesses located at the new industrial precinct.

Pictured from left: Local elder Aunty Edna performing the Welcome to Country ceremony at the opening of the facility and the Smoking Ceremony that followed.

The plant was constructed using the knowledge and expertise of each member of the joint venture, which is trading as Circular Plastics Australia (PET). Cleanaway will provide the plastic to be recycled through its collection and sorting network, Pact will operate the facility and provide technical and packaging expertise, while Asahi Beverages, CCEP and Pact will buy the recycled plastic from the facility to use in their packaging.

The joint venture is building a second PET plastic recycling facility which will also have the capacity to recycle the equivalent to around 1 billion PET beverage bottles each year. Construction on the $50 million plant in Melbourne’s west is scheduled to begin in April 2022 and be completed in 2023. The Albury-Wodonga project was supported with nearly $5 million from the NSW Government’s Waste Less, Recycle More initiative, with the support of the Australian Government’s Recycling Modernisation Fund.

Pictured from left: NSW Minister for Environment and Heritage James Griffin and Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley speaking to the media at the opening ceremony

Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley said that as Australia works internationally and domestically to reduce plastic waste it is wonderful to see practical action and commitment coming to fruition in Albury today.

“Pact Group made a $500 million commitment at our first national plastic summit in 2020 and they, along with their JV partners Cleanaway, Asahi Beverages and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, have made that a reality today. This demonstrates commitment to our national packaging targets when the supply chain and government work together,” Minister Ley said. NSW Environment Minister James Griffin said: “Through our $337 million Waste Less, Recycle More intitiative, the NSW Government contributed $4.8 million to this facility, and another $495,000 for specialised equipment inside the plant. This investment is helping us achieve our target of tripling plastics recycling in NSW by 2030, and transitioning to a circular economy.”

Pact’s Managing Director and CEO, Sanjay Dayal, said: “The opening of this state-of-the-art facility in Albury-Wodonga is a game changer for Australia’s plastic recycling industry. We are proud to be part of a sustainable solution to divert plastic waste from landfill and ensure we are recycling and manufacturing our drink bottles and food packaging here in Australia without the need to import plastic material from overseas. Pact Group will continue to work with industry partners and governments to build a strong, local circular economy.”

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.”

Asahi Beverages’ Group CEO, Robert Iervasi, said: “This recycling plant is a testament to the sustainability commitment of each organisation involved. It can’t be underestimated how significant this project will be – we are providing an industry-wide solution that will benefit all Australians. Asahi Beverages already has a large beverage manufacturing plant in Albury, and we are excited to expand our presence, helping create more local jobs. Our consumers told us they wanted more recycled bottles, and together we have worked out a way to do that that will make a real impact.”

Coca-Cola Europacific Partner’s Vice President and General Manager Australia, Pacific and Indonesia, Peter West, said: “CCEP is committed to playing a leading role in Australia’s circular economy. With our partners, we are working towards creating a closed loop for our bottles where they are used, collected and given another life. This plant, and the future Victorian plant, will complete this loop, help to solve the national rPET shortage and create new jobs for Australian workers. It is a proud moment in our corporate history.”

Contact us to learn more about how we’re making a sustainable future possible together with communities and businesses across Australia.

Watch how Circular Plastics Australia is transforming the local circular economy

Partnerships - Resource Recovery

February 18, 2022

Highlights

The partnership creates valuable raw materials from the recyclables we collect and sort to help make a sustainable future possible

Tags: Circular economy

Highlights

The partnership creates valuable raw materials from the recyclables we collect and sort to help make a sustainable future possible

Circular Plastics Australia a joint venture between Cleanaway, Asahi Beverages, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) and Pact Group will be recycling billions of used plastic containers onshore with ready end-market applications for the recycled PET material. The joint venture’s first plastic recycling facility in Albury/Wodonga, NSW started operating in December 2021 and a second facility in Altona North, VIC is expected to be completed in late 2023.

Cleanaway will provide the plastic feedstock from its collection and sorting network, Pact will provide technical and packaging expertise while Asahi Beverages, CCEP and Pact will buy the recycled plastic from the facilities to use in their respective products.

Each facility is capable of recycling the equivalent of around 1 billion PET plastic bottles collected by Cleanaway through container deposit schemes and kerbside recycling each year and converting them into high-quality recycled PET bottles and food packaging.

Circular Plastics Australia has launched a new website which can be viewed here.

Contact us to learn more about how we’re making a sustainable future possible for communities and businesses across Australia or to see if there’s soft plastics recycling nearby.

How we can take more from our waste – energy-from-waste

Learning - Resource Recovery

February 17, 2022

Highlights

When used to complement recycling, reuse and reduction initiatives, energy-from-waste can be incredibly effective for recovering resources from waste that has no other recovery pathway.

Tags: Energy-from-waste

Highlights

When used to complement recycling, reuse and reduction initiatives, energy-from-waste can be incredibly effective for recovering resources from waste that has no other recovery pathway.

It’s estimated that each person in Australia generates around 2.7 tonnes of waste per year. That’s 22 million tonnes of waste sent to landfill every year. Our population is growing on an average of 1.7% each year and more people result in more consumption and waste generated. This is not sustainable. Land space is finite, and contributes heavily (through production of methane which is approx. 25 times more concentrated than CO2) to our carbon footprint so a sustainable waste management strategy would seek to reduce reliance on landfill by diverting materials away from it wherever possible.

In recent times, COVID-19 has us spending more time at home and producing more waste through takeaway food, packaging from online shopping and essential single-use items such as disposable masks and test kits. People are also putting the wrong things in the wrong bin, putting even more pressure on landfill as soft plastics, food scraps and clothing contaminates quality recycling and sometimes goes to waste.

In a sustainable waste management system, the preferred strategy is to reduce the amount of rubbish produced in the first place. For the average Australian householder, this means planning your shop to avoid waste, buying only items that are necessary and avoiding single-use materials.

Making sustainable shopping choices, recycling cardboard packaging, tin cans and hard plastic in your kerbside recycling bin and composting your leftover food and green material makes a big difference to reducing waste.

And there are new recovery options emerging all the time. You can drop use specialised recycling programs for soft plastics and recycle electronic waste at your local Officeworks, with large electronics recycled through the council. So if we recovered all of these things consistently, what we’re left with is the residual waste that absolutely cannot be avoided – like nappies, material contaminated with food and personal hygiene items.

At the moment in Australia we rely on landfill for all our residual waste but there is technology being used around the world that allows us do more with this resource through energy from waste.

Energy from waste creates energy and heat from otherwise wasted resources and can be applied to produce electricity to power homes and businesses. Compared to traditional fuel sources, an energy-from-waste facility with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes per annum would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 390,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year and is a lower cost option for councils and businesses to dispose of their non-recyclable waste. Reusing the bottom ash in construction materials would allow us to divert over 95% of the residual waste “input” from landfill.

Despite the benefits, there have been understandable concerns from communities around safety and the technology used.

A common misconception is that energy from waste facilities are like incinerators from the past. In reality, energy from waste facilities are highly engineered to minimise air pollution and protect human health with cutting edge technology that has been proven in urban locations overseas for decades.

Modern facilities ensure that waste materials are completely combusted which means less polluting gases and ash remaining at the end of the process. The gases that are produced go through Flue Gas Treatment (FGT) systems that effectively ‘clean’ the gases, so that emissions that leave the facility are odourless and do not pose a risk to surrounding communities or the environment. As a bonus, the ash can even be recycled and reused in construction projects.

Just like licensed landfills, energy from waste facilities are operated under strict regulatory guidelines and located at areas specifically designed for the operation. Europe has well-established facilities that are an important part of their waste management infrastructure where they are commonly located in urban areas.

When used to complement recycling, reuse and reduction initiatives, energy-from-waste can be incredibly effective for recovering resources from waste that has no other recovery pathway.

Learn about energy-from-waste technology safety, regulations and emissions here.

Contact us to learn more about how we’re making a sustainable future possible for communities and businesses across Australia.

Qenos and Cleanaway Plastic-to-Plastic Advanced Recycling feasibility study

The study will investigate the benefits of converting up to 100,000 tonnes per year of Australia’s household soft plastic waste and mixed plastics into feedstock for use in manufacturing.

Partnerships - Resource Recovery

February 15, 2022

Highlights

"We are pleased to now partner with Qenos to study advanced recycling, which would complement our existing reprocessing platform to process mixed plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled." CEO and MD Mark Schubert

Tags: Circular economy

Highlights

Australia’s largest plastics manufacturer Qenos and the nation’s leading waste management company, Cleanaway have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to undertake a joint feasibility study for plastic-to-plastic advanced recycling in New South Wales and Victoria.

The study will investigate the feasibility and environmental benefits of converting up to 100,000 tonnes per year of Australia’s household soft plastic waste and mixed plastics, which would otherwise end up in landfill, into feedstock for use in Qenos’ existing manufacturing facilities to produce Circular Polyethylene.

*Pictured: Pile of soft plastic and mixed plastics*

Circular Polyethylene has identical properties to virgin polyethylene and can be used in food contact and high-performance applications thereby supporting local packaging and food manufacturers to achieve the 2025 APCO National Packaging Targets.

Qenos CEO, Stephen Bell, said that this joint study leverages the combined resources of the nation’s leading companies in the fields of plastics waste management and plastics manufacturing. “Qenos is uniquely positioned to help solve our country’s soft plastics waste problem, as the only operator in Australia with the complete suite of assets required for the creation of circular plastics through advanced recycling. Without polymer manufacturing, advanced recycling stops at plastics-to-oil.”

Qenos will lead the study for one or more advanced recycling plants using its existing steam cracker and polymerisation facilities that would convert plastic waste pre-processed by Cleanaway.

Cleanaway CEO Mark Schubert commented “Through our already established Circular Plastics Australia partnership we are well progressed in developing the leading mechanical plastics reprocessing platform for PET, HDPE and PP and potentially LDPE. We are pleased to now partner with Qenos to study advanced recycling, which would complement our existing reprocessing platform to process mixed plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled. It would enable us to offer our customers higher resource recovery rates and more sustainable, circular outcomes for their waste.”

Cleanaway is one of Qenos’ partners in a bid submitted for the Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) Collaboration Stream to support the plastic-to-plastic advanced recycling project. Incorporating 50 consortium partners and supporters across the entire supply chain from raw material production to supermarket shelf, Federal Government assistance would see a new sovereign manufacturing sector secured in Australia.

Mr Bell continued: “This project will be a huge step towards a plastics circular economy in Australia and achieving the National Packaging Targets from local inputs. Qenos and Cleanaway are playing a leadership role in seeking to ensure Australian manufacturing fully participates in a new global industry that is forecast to attract $680 billion in investment by 2050.”

The joint feasibility study is expected to be completed by July 2022 and a final investment decision to be made later this year. Pending a successful outcome, the first of the advanced recycling facilities is expected to be operational by 2025.

Contact us to learn more about how we’re making a sustainable future possible for communities and businesses across Australia.

Qenos and Cleanaway join forces in Australian Plastic-to-Plastic Advanced Recycling feasibility study

Partnerships - Resource Recovery

Tags: Media release

Highlights

Qenos will lead the study for one or more advanced recycling plants using its existing steam cracker and polymerisation facilities that would convert plastic waste pre-processed by Cleanaway.

Cleanaway will leverage its existing collection and processing infrastructure and investigate new methods of collecting, sorting and pre-processing post-consumer soft plastics to provide the required volumes of suitable feedstock for advanced recycling.
Cleanaway CEO Mark Schubert commented “Through our already established Circular Plastics Australia partnership we are well progressed in developing the leading mechanical plastics reprocessing platform for PET, HDPE and PP and potentially LDPE. We are pleased to now partner with Qenos to study advanced recycling, which would complement our existing reprocessing platform to process mixed plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled. It would enable us to offer our customers higher resource recovery rates and more sustainable, circular outcomes for their waste.”

For further information contact:
Media
Rod Coughlin
Corporate Services Manager
Tel: +61 437 102 195
Email: rod.coughlin@qenos.com

Media
Mark Biddulph
Head of Corporate Affairs
Tel: +61 499 332 601
Email: mark.biddulph@cleanaway.com.au

Qenos
As Australia’s only manufacturer and leading supplier of polyethylene, Qenos adds value to Australia’s natural resources through conversion into petrochemicals and polymers that are used by hundreds of companies in the Australian plastics and chemicals industry.

Qenos products are used in myriad applications including the key packaging, agriculture, automotive, water, mining and waste management industries, making Qenos a vital link in the Australian manufacturing chain. With manufacturing sites in Victoria and New South Wales, Qenos has approximately 850 employees and contractors with annual revenue of $700m.

Qenos is part of China National Bluestar Group with its ultimate shareholder Sinochem Holdings Corp Ltd headquartered in Beijing and formed through the restructuring of Sinochem Group Co Ltd and China National Chemical Corporation Ltd. Sinochem has more than 220,000 employees, including over 90,000 people in overseas markets, owns production bases and R&D facilities in more than 150 countries and regions around the world, and operates a global chemical marketing network.

As part of the Qenos vision to be a leading business in the manufacture, distribution and trading of polymers and advanced chemicals, Qenos has introduced a new market channel, eXsource, operating out of Australia and New Zealand. The Qenos and eXsource eCommerce platform gives customers access to a wide range of imported polymers manufactured by Qenos, LyondellBasell, Bluestar and others.
www.qenos.com

Cleanaway
Cleanaway Waste Management Ltd is Australia’s leading waste management company, with a national network of unique collection, processing, treatment, and landfill assets. Cleanaway operates from more than 250 locations and directly employs more than 6,300 people.

Our philosophy is that all waste is a resource and we aim to incorporate recovery, recycling, and reuse throughout our operations and those of our clients. Our mission is to make a sustainable future possible for all our stakeholders.
www.cleanaway.com.au

Answering the call of sustainability

Our People - Resource Recovery

February 11, 2022

Highlights

"Winning the Star Award was a big accomplishment for me. I would also say that applying for and winning a grant from the EPA alongside my manager Theresa Troup was a big achievement."

Tags: Star Awards

Highlights

"Winning the Star Award was a big accomplishment for me. I would also say that applying for and winning a grant from the EPA alongside my manager Theresa Troup was a big achievement."

Sustainability is a guiding principle for many Cleanaway employees.

For Col Watson, however, it is a calling.

Col was recently named Winner for Sustainability in Cleanaway’s Star Awards, which recognise and reward our most dedicated team members helping to make a sustainable future possible.

Pictured: Col Watson, Winner of the 2021 Star Award for Sustainability

Maximum effort to minimise waste
Col is a Resource Recovery Officer at Cleanaway’s Centre for Sustainability, where she works with her customers to find opportunities to turn waste bound for landfill into valuable resources that can be recycled or reused.

According to her, education is an indispensable part of the equation.

“We help our customers understand how they can improve their waste practices and how recycling can assist them in achieving their sustainability goals.”

“We also help them see how this can also be a financial advantage, with the landfill levy so high.”

Relishing the challenge

Her past work in the health sector makes Col especially keen on helping her healthcare customers divert their waste from landfill.

It is a challenge this former nurse has firsthand experience with.

“Coming from the sector, I have a great understanding of the vast amounts and types of waste that is generated and how little is recycled.”

“While there are great opportunities for landfill diversion, it’s challenging to implement as most hospitals have little room to install extra bins for source separation.”

Reaching for the stars

Col continues to push the limits of sustainability through her work and research.
Apart from winning the 2021 Star Award for Sustainability, she counts an EPA grant to further a sustainability project as one of her favourite accomplishments.

“Winning the Star Award was a big accomplishment for me. I would also say that applying for and winning a grant from the EPA alongside my manager Theresa Troup was a big achievement.”

“I have not previously applied for a grant, so it was exciting to be selected by the EPA to receive funding towards our project.”

Contact us to learn more about how we’re making a sustainable future possible for communities and businesses across Australia.

Cleanaway wins Coles Service Champion of the Year Award

Our Services - Resource Recovery

February 3, 2022

Highlights

“The scale of our servicing is a testament to the commitment of the whole Cleanaway team who work together to give each Coles location a great service and sustainability experience.”

Tags: Resource Recovery

Highlights

“The scale of our servicing is a testament to the commitment of the whole Cleanaway team who work together to give each Coles location a great service and sustainability experience.”

The 2021 Coles Supplier Awards celebrates creative Australian businesses which are leading the way in sustainability, community and health innovation. As Coles’ trusted waste partner, Cleanaway supports Coles towards their “Together to Zero Waste” ambition and was awarded the Coles Service Champion of the Year Award for its leading role in reducing waste and improving resource recovery.

Strategic National Account Manager Nicole Henwood said, “It’s very exciting for the team to win the Service Champion of the Year Award. We manage 55,000 pick-ups of waste each month from stores and continue to support Coles to reach its 85% diversion from landfill target by 2025 through continued education and infrastructure investment.”

“The scale of our servicing is a testament to the commitment of the whole Cleanaway team who work together to give each Coles location a great service and sustainability experience.”

As part of our service, we developed the Coles Waste & Recycling Guide to provide information on all waste services and guidelines to establish efficient waste management processes and delivered over 750 education sessions to stores across FY21 to help improve waste management processes.

Pictured: Coles Waste & Recycling Guide

“Educational videos for stores provided store team members with another way to understand waste processes to maximise waste diversion while our National Recycling Week campaign and online education platform Greenius provide waste education to customers across Australia.” Nicole explained.

Cleanaway’s four-year partnership with Coles has seen a significant shift in diversion culture and performance across Coles Group, demonstrating our joint commitment towards making a sustainable future possible.

Throughout FY21 Cleanaway implemented waste diversion strategies that saw over 181,000 tonnes of cardboard, 6,200 tonnes of plastic pallet wrap, and 20,000 tonnes of organic food waste diverted from landfill.

Coles and Cleanaway have partnered on diversion initiatives that enabled Coles to reduce general waste by 10.5% in FY21, from 76,742 tonnes to 68,646 tonnes.

Strategically, Coles and Cleanaway partnered on the development of innovative food waste depackaging technology, a first for the southeast Queensland market. This technology allows store food waste to be diverted from landfill, without adding cumbersome depackaging tasks for team members.

Cleanaway expanded food waste services to over 500 additional supermarket and Express stores across FY21, bringing the total number of Coles sites with food waste services to 925, enabling more stores than ever to divert food that is unsalable and unfit for food rescue.

Plastic is a necessary packaging requirement, however, creates a recycling challenge. Cleanaway developed a solution to collect and recycle mixed pre-consumer plastics used by Coles stores across Sydney. This collection has enabled over 130 tonnes of mixed plastics to be diverted from landfill in FY21.

Contact us to learn more about how we’re making a sustainable future possible for communities and businesses across Australia.

Game-changing recycling plant to be built in Melbourne’s west

Partnerships - Resource Recovery

January 18, 2022

Tags: Plastics

Highlights

Updated February 2022

A new PET plastic recycling facility will be built in Altona North by a cross-industry partnership, with the facility set to be the largest of its kind in Victoria upon completion.

Pact Group, Cleanaway, Asahi Beverages and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) have formed a joint venture to build and operate the facility, which will drive a significant increase in the state’s PET recycling capacity.

The plant, a cross-industry solution, will be built in an industrial precinct on Horsburgh Drive and construction will start in early 2022 and finish in 2023. It’s expected to create more than 100 local jobs during the construction phase and 45 permanent roles once it’s complete. The capital expenditure for the project will be around $50 million. Federal Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley and Victorian Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio announced $6 million dollars towards the project from a total pool of $36.5 million in joint funding for projects under the Australian Government’s Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF) and the Victorian Government’s Recycling Victoria Infrastructure Fund.

The new Victorian facility will be the second PET recycling plant to be built by the joint venture following the construction of a similar plant in Albury-Wodonga which will be fully operational next month.

Each facility will be capable of processing the equivalent of around 1 billion plastic bottles – collected via Container Deposit Schemes and kerbside recycling each year. This will be converted into more than 20,000 tonnes of high-quality recycled PET bottles and food packaging by each facility, which will use state-of-the-art sorting, washing, decontamination and extrusion technology.

While competitors in the beverage market, CCEP and Asahi Beverages have joined with Pact and Cleanaway to form this joint venture to deliver a substantial increase in the amount of PET plastic recycled and reused in Australia.

The cross-industry joint venture draws on the expertise of each member. Cleanaway will provide PET through its collection and sorting network, Pact will provide technical and packaging expertise and Asahi Beverages, CCEP and Pact will buy the recycled PET from the facility to use in their products. Minister Ley said the Morrison Government’s $190 million contribution to the RMF was facilitating unprecedented investment in recycling infrastructure, with the combined Commonwealth, state, territory and industry co-investment model on track to reach around $800 million. “The co-investment model is exceeding all expectations and showing that materials can be recycled and remanufactured to create new products and new jobs while helping our environment.”

Victorian Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Lily D’Ambrosio said the joint venture will receive $6 million towards its new PET recycling facility which will boost local jobs and increase the state’s recycling capacity. “Funding and facilitating projects like this will help Victoria reach our goal of diverting 80 per cent of waste sent to landfill by 2030, improving our circular economy and tackling climate change. “

Robert Iervasi, Asahi Beverages Group CEO, said: “We are constructing this facility to help create a truly circular economy in Victoria and beyond. Our consumers can now have increased confidence that when they dispose of their plastic water or soft drink bottle, it will be recycled instead of going to landfill. It’s not every day that drinks companies announce they’re building a new recycling plant but we want to help create meaningful change.”

Peter West, CCEP Vice President and General Manager Australia, Pacific and Indonesia, said: “We are proud of CCEP’s continued investment in Australia’s circular economy. Our vision is for our bottles to be part of a closed loop where they are used, collected and given another life. This plant will work to complete this loop, lessen the national rPET shortage and create new jobs for Victorian workers. It is truly an exciting milestone in our sustainability ambitions.”

Mark Schubert, Cleanaway CEO and Managing Director, said: “This recycling facility is a huge step towards Victoria creating its own domestic circular economy. Cleanaway is excited to be part of providing customers access to high circularity infrastructure as we work towards making a sustainable future possible together.”

Sanjay Dayal, Pact Group CEO and Managing Director said: “We know from our research that Australian consumers are increasingly demanding packaging that is recycled and recyclable, and this new PET recycling facility in Victoria ticks both of those boxes. Pact Group is delighted to have been able to drive a cross industry solution for sustainable beverage bottles and we will continue to work with industry partners and government to create a strong local circular economy. This facility is part of our ongoing investment in new state-of-the-art facilities to recycle plastic waste and manufacture sustainable packaging all across Australia.”

Visit https://circularplasticsaustralia.com/ for more information.

Sustainable Categories: Resource Recovery

‘Operation Collect’ sweeps 100,000 tonnes of waste from flood-impacted Brisbane

’Operation Collect’ sweeps 100,000 tonnes of waste from flood-impacted Brisbane

Breakthroughs in onshore plastic recycling in Australia

Breakthroughs in onshore plastic recycling in Australia

World-class recycling plant opens in Albury-Wodonga

World-class recycling plant opens in Albury-Wodonga

Watch how Circular Plastics Australia is transforming the local circular economy

Watch how Circular Plastics Australia is transforming the local circular economy

How we can take more from our waste – energy-from-waste

How we can take more from our waste – energy-from-waste

Qenos and Cleanaway Plastic-to-Plastic Advanced Recycling feasibility study

Qenos and Cleanaway Plastic-to-Plastic Advanced Recycling feasibility study

Qenos and Cleanaway join forces in Australian Plastic-to-Plastic Advanced Recycling feasibility study

Qenos and Cleanaway join forces in Australian Plastic-to-Plastic Advanced Recycling feasibility study

Answering the call of sustainability

Answering the call of sustainability

Cleanaway wins Coles Service Champion of the Year Award

Cleanaway wins Coles Service Champion of the Year Award

Game-changing recycling plant to be built in Melbourne’s west

Game-changing recycling plant to be built in Melbourne's west