New Somerton plastics recycling plant opens, will create 46 new jobs

28 June 2019 11:17

By Staff Reporter

Advanced Circular Polymers’ new plastics recycling facility at Somerton, which is Australia’s largest, officially opened this morning.

AAP reports that the $20 million plant has a capacity of 70,000 tonnes of annually, equivalent to more than a tenth of what Victoria produces in plastic waste.

A claimed 46 new jobs will be created through the opening.

The plant was supported by a $500,000 grant from Sustainability Victoria. It will be powered by energy from Goldwind Australia’s wind farm near Ballarat.

A release from ACP said the operation turns low-volume contaminated mixed plastics into feedstocks for other manufacturers to use. Its process “involves using sophisticated artificial intelligence to sort and clean plastic by polymer type specific to customer requirements,” according to the statement. “The end result is a high-quality plastic flake that can be sold and made into more plastic products such as packaging or polyester yarn.”

Founder and managing director of ACP, Harry Wang, said, “We are big supporters of reducing plastic pollution as a first step, but while there is still plastic to be recycled we should be doing our best to capture what we can.

“We should treat plastic like gold. It is a precious resource that can be used in production again and again.”

Somerton is also home to Close the Loop’s recycling factory, which has circular economy efforts that include recycling toner cartridges, plastic bags and glass bottles into road surfacing.

Picture: PET flakes from www.greenplastics.ae

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