Advanced Circular Polymers’ new plastics recycling facility at Somerton, which is Australia’s largest, officially opened this morning.
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.”
Picture: PET flakes from www.greenplastics.ae
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