AusWaste plans Queensland paper recycling facility

One of Australia’s biggest paper recycling facilities will be built in South East Queensland with plans to turn 220,000 tonnes of waste paper and cardboard into pulp annually for export.

The federal and Queensland governments have partnered with Brisbane-based national company AusWaste Recycling to build a $137 million waste paper recycling facility at Brendale.

The Australian Recycled Pulp and Paper Project (ARPPP) is supported by a joint investment of $40 million from the Commonwealth and state governments through the Recycling Modernisation Fund.

Industry is also playing a key role, contributing $97 million to the total project cost which will support 58 ongoing jobs.

The ARPPP will process waste including used packaging, newspaper, coffee cups, milk cartons and office paper into value-added paper pulp for paper mills.

AusWaste Recycling Director Vincent Liang said: “AusWaste Recycling is pleased to be part of a national approach to resource recovery that recognises the opportunity to use an existing global supply chain to achieve the scale needed to create a meaningful impact on how Australia manages waste and recycling.

“Our core business is the export of commodities like processed pulp from waste paper which are sought after in foreign markets.

“The ARPPP will strengthen our national recycling industry, increase capabilities and create new jobs.”

Construction of the ARPPP is expected to begin in mid 2024 and be completed in mid 2025.

The funding is part of a $1 billion boost to recycling infrastructure that will add over one million tonnes of processing capacity across the country every year, keeping valuable materials out of landfill and cutting the export of waste materials.

Liang said: “Instead of baling and shipping waste paper we’ll be processing and manufacturing a higher-value product.

“We already have well-established relationships in Asia with paper mill operators who are seeking paper pulp and the ARPPP will mean we’re ideally positioned to provide it to them.

“We see South East Queensland as the ideal location for a new facility that can process waste paper supplied from across the state and into northern New South Wales.”

The Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek said the new facility would supercharge recycling in Queensland.

“It means that paper and cardboard waste, like egg cartons and cereal boxes, can be sorted and processed in Queensland.

“And this is just one of 24 recycling projects that we are funding across Queensland.”

Picture: AusWaste Recycling