The Circular Plastics Australia (PET) plant will convert used beverage bottles, into high-quality food-grade resin, which is then used to make new recycled PET beverage bottles and food packaging such as meat trays and fruit punnets. The plant will play a key role in recycling PET bottles collected through the Container Deposit Scheme as well as PET plastic packaging from household and office recycling bins.
The world-class facility is the biggest of its kind in Victoria and equipped with state-of-the-art equipment capable of producing 2.5 tonnes of recycled PET resin per hour. Multiple infrared and optical sorters firstly separate out any non-PET material, such as bottle lids, labels, and metals. The PET bottles are then shredded, ground, and washed, before the flaked material goes through a two-stage heating and drying process. The washed flake finally undergoes an extrusion and purification process to produce the recycled PET resin certified to US FDA standards.
When fully operational, the plant will be able to produce around 20,000 tonnes of recycled PET resin each year, equivalent to the weight of two Eiffel Towers.[1] At full production, the facility is expected to employ about 45 people for its 24/7 operations and supported around 60 full time jobs during its construction.
This is the second Circular Plastics Australia (PET) recycling facility now operational in Australia, with the first, a similar sized plant in Albury NSW, commencing operations in March 2022.
Circular Plastics Australia (PET) is a joint venture between Pact Group, Cleanaway Waste Management, Asahi Beverages, and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) and was formed to provide a bottle-to-bottle solution to help accelerate the local plastic circular economy. While competitors in the beverage market, CCEP and Asahi Beverages have come together for this joint venture to help deliver a significant increase in the volume of PET plastics recycled in Australia.
