Plastic recycler opens fourth factory at Melbourne

CRDC Australia has officially opened a new factory in the Melbourne suburb of Tottenham, where it is transforming end-of-life hard and soft plastics into “an Eco-Aggregate that improves concrete.”

“Following the US, Costa Rica, and South Africa, we are proud to be the fourth global location hosting this groundbreaking technology,” said Shane Ramsey, Managing Director of CRDC Australia, acknowledging the support of the state government and partner the Australia and New Zealand Recycling Platform (ANZRP).

State environment minister Steve Dimopoulos said the government contributed $500,000 to the new $2.5 million factory.

According to a statement from the company on Monday, their mineral-polymer product is engineered for both structural and non-structural building applications, “meets and surpasses international ASTM standards,” is created through a carbon-negative production process, and can use “all types of plastics” as an input.

RESIN8 can be used in applications including concrete, masonry bricks, and pavers, and is currently being trialled by Hobsons Bay Council. That project is seeing 1,350 kilograms of soft plastics turned into asphalt for a local road.

The site’s capacity is claimed to be one metric tonne per hour, to be scaled up in coming months, and at full capacity will be able to process around 6,650 tonnes of hard and soft plastics annually and produce 8,300 tonnes of RESIN8.

The facility is currently being used as part of the Soft Plastics Taskforce trial in Melbourne – involving  five Woolworths, five Coles and two ALDI – addressing the loss of recycling capacity caused by the collapse of REDcycle in 2022.

The end of the program left behind an estimated 12,000 tonnes of stockpiled soft plastic at the time.

“By converting difficult to recycle plastic waste into a valuable resource for the construction industry, we are not only addressing the environmental challenges of today but also paving the way for future innovations,” added ANZRP CEO Warren Overton. 

“We take great pride in partnering with CRDC Global to introduce this innovative circular solution that effectively manages our members’ plastic waste.”

According to federal government figures, Australia uses more than 70 billion pieces of soft plastic a year. 

Most of it is destined for landfill “or blows into streets and waterways, polluting our rivers and oceans,” according to one expert writing on the subject in February.

Picture: supplied

Further reading

Soft plastic recycling is back after the REDcycle collapse – but only in 12 supermarkets. Will it work this time?

Coles, Woolies offer to take on REDcycle’s plastics stockpile

REDcycle’s collapse is more proof that plastic recycling is a broken system