MIKE.WHEELER August 10, 2021, 10:28 am

The Australian and New South Wales Governments have announced 22 new recycling projects across metropolitan and regional NSW as part of a $600 million national rollout of recycling infrastructure.

Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley said the new NSW projects show how the Morrison Government’s $190 million investment in the Recycling Modernisation Fund is turbocharging the nation’s infrastructure when it comes to recycling capacity.

“The joint funding component between the Commonwealth and NSW for these projects is $24 million, generating industry investment of $59 million,” Minister Ley said.

“This is about easing pressure on our environment by recycling more materials including plastics, tyres, glass, cardboard and even coffee cups, and importantly it is about creating jobs and economic investment.

“We need to capture the economic value of waste, we need to create markets for recycled materials and this level of investment will drive jobs in key areas at a critical time.”

NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean said that the Remanufacture NSW projects in Western Sydney, the Central Coast, Newcastle, and regional NSW will create jobs and increase the state’s recycling capacity by an estimated 120,000 tonnes every year.

“We can’t keep sending our scraps to languish in landfill when there are huge opportunities to turn our trash into treasure,” Minister Kean said.

“This funding and these new projects will help to boost our existing recycling capabilities, supportive innovative re-use of recycled materials and boost NSW’s recycling capacity.” Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management Trevor Evans said that the range of projects selected for funding cover the gamut of recycling materials and remanufacturing uses and introduce the latest innovations in recycling technology.

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“We are investing in everything from new and upgraded material recycling facilities in regional areas, to mobile plastic from e-waste processing facilities,” Assistant Minister Evans said.

“The materials to be recycled are those impacted by Australia’s world leading ban on the export of waste glass, plastic, tyres and paper which are gradually being phased in until mid-2024.”

A further grant round of RMF funding will open by the end of 2021. The Australian Government is driving a $1 billion transformation of our waste and recycling industry to turbocharge domestic recycling so we can process Australia materials that were previously sent overseas.

The $190 million Recycling Modernisation Fund investment, and measures to support Australia’s National Waste Policy Action Plan, will create approximately 10,000 new jobs all around Australia over the next ten years.

For details of all NSW projects click here.

For further information on the Recycling Modernisation Fund click here.

Key infrastructure project outcomes:

• Establishment of a new $40m regional Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) to recycle waste glass, plastic, tyres and paper and cardboard in Newcastle. • Five mobile plastic processing facilities across Sydney to process almost 5,000 tonnes of plastic each year. • New state-of-the-art infrastructure in Erskine Park to reprocess 3,200 tonnes of used Off The Road (OTR) tyres for use in road construction and manufactured rubber-based products. • Expand a Wetherill Park plant that turns paperboard beverage containers collected through container deposit schemes and coffee cups collected through the ‘Simply Cups’ recycling program into sustainable building products as a substitute for plaster and particle boards. • Upgrading glass processing in western Sydney to process an additional 50,000 tonnes of glass each year that will increase the kerbside glass recovery from 53 percent to 60 per cent. • Upgrading moulding equipment at Sulo’s Somersby facility to recycle old kerbside bins and bottle caps back into mobile garbage bins, creating circular kerbside bins. • Expanding Australian Recycled Plastics facility at Narrabri to allow both PET and HDPE/PP lines to run simultaneously and at full capacity, processing up 9,300 tonnes per annum