Visy launches $50 million expansion at Laverton site

Visy has officially opened its upgraded glass recycling facility at Laverton, Victoria which recently doubled processing capacity to 200,000 tonnes per annum.

According to a statement from state environment minister Steve Dimopoulos – who opened the facility on Thursday – the $50 million expansion includes delivering 20 new optical sorters for processing glass pieces as small as 3 millimetres in size.

Visy is North Zone Operator for Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme, which went live in November last year. It runs collection and refund points across the Loddon, Mallee and Hume regions, as well as the inner north and eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Two other zones are the responsibility of Return-It and TOMRA Cleanaway.

The Laverton site will process glass collected through the CDS as well as collected from kerbside glass recycling bins, turning this into food and beverage containers.

“This is an important upgrade for Victoria and Visy on our way to manufacturing new glass bottles and jars made with an average of 70 per cent recycled content,” said Visy Chairman Anthony Pratt on Thursday.

CDS Vic offers a 10 cent refund for eligible cans, bottles and cartons, dropped off over-the-counter, at collection depots, or reverse vending machines.

Dimopolous said over 220 million containers have been recycled into new products since the scheme was launched.

Picture: credit Engage Victoria

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