Page 6 - Packaging News magazine November-December 2022

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TOP STORIES FROM PACKAGINGNEWS.COM.AU
1INDUSTRY REELS AT REDCYCLE SUSPENSION As news broke about the
suspension of REDcycle’s soft plastic recycling program, PKN spoke to industry players and stakeholders. (See p6 +p12)
2KRONES INSTALLS 100TH CRAFTMATE C AT MOUNTAIN CULTURE Mountain Culture Brewery installed a Krones beer canning line – the 100th of its kind installed globally – at its new brewery in Emu Plains. (See Machinery Matters section, p14)
3APCO AWARDS 2022: PROGRESS LAUDED Arnott’s Group took out top prize, with Fonterra’s Sarah Baylis named Sustainable Champion of the Year. (See p8)
4ARNOTT’S TO MEET 2025 TARGETS TWO YEARS EARLY
Arnott’s is on track to meet the APCO’s 2025 National Packaging Targets by 2023. (See p62)
5SAMSARA DEVELOPS ENZYME-RECYCLED PACKS FOR WOOLIES Samsara Eco raised $54m to scale infinite recycling, and plans to launch its first enzymatically-recycled packaging in Woolworths stores next. (See p7)
6ORORA BEGINS OPERATIONS AT
$25M GLASS BENEFICIATION PLANT Orora’s glass beneficiation plant in SA will recycle 150,000 tonnes of post-consumer glass each year. (See p 40)
REDcycle pauses soft plastics collection
SOFT PLASTIC RECYCLING programme REDcycle announced on 9 November it would temporarily cease the collection of flexible materials. The announcement came after it was revealed that
REDcycle had been stockpiling collected materials due to a lack of recycling capacity for soft plastics.
REDcycle said it had stored the material at its own expense while it waited for recycling capacity to come back on stream.
Collection points in thousands of Coles and Woolworths stores have been closed, and consumers instructed in the interim to put soft plastics waste in landfill bins rather than returning it to stores.
REDcycle cited as the reason “several unforeseen challenges exacerbated by the pandemic” which had led its recycling part- ners to temporarily stop accepting
and processing soft plastics, “plac- ing untenable pressure on the REDcycle business model”.
A fire at the plant of the biggest user of REDcycle material, Close the Loop, had placed considerable strain on the system. The plant will be out of action until July next year, but the company has confirmed it will come back on stream with three times more recycling capacity.
With strong support from indus- try, REDcycle said it is “committed to having the program back up and running as soon as possible” ■
Read more in our full report in Industry Insight, page 12-13.
Visy breaks ground on $500m glass facility in Qld
PACKAGING GIANT VISY has broken ground on its new $500 million glass recycling and remanufactur-
ing factory in Queensland, which once operational, will recycle up to 200,000 tonnes of the state’s glass bottles and jars annually to produce one billion bottles a year.
The largest investment ever made in the state, Visy’s new facility, just south of Brisbane in Stapylton, will be built next to Visy’s current box factory and bev- erage can plant, and is expected to be running by 2025.
“Recycling is an important weapon against climate change, and the technology employed in this factory will help enable Australia to go from an average of 30 per cent recycled glass content in bottles to 70 per cent, which is moving towards world’s-best practice,” said Anthony Pratt, executive chairman at Visy.
“This ensures the majority of Queensland’s recyclable recovered glass containers from the state’s CDS and kerbside recycling bins can be remanufactured right here in Queensland.”
The project represents a massive expansion of Visy’s Queensland recycling and remanufacturing operations, and is underpinned by a long-term partnership with Asahi Beverages, and agreements with customers Lion, Bundaberg and Coca-Cola.
It will support about 200 green collar manufacturing jobs once operational, and bring Visy’s Queensland workforce to more than 1000 people. It will also cre- ate over 600 jobs in construction.
The project forms part of Pratt’s
2021 pledge to invest $2 billion in Australian recycling and clean energy infrastructure over the ensuing decade, creating thousands of new green collar, well-paying Australian manufacturing jobs.
It brings Visy’s total investment in Australia to over $11 billion.
Visy will relocate its current glass remanufacturing operations from South Brisbane in 2025, pav- ing the way for the site along the Brisbane River to be used as the International Broadcasting Centre for the 2032 Olympic Games. ■
6 ❙ NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2022
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IMAGE CREDIT: VISY