Page 24 - Packaging News Magazine Jan-Feb 21

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SUSTAINABILITY | CIRCULAR ECONOMY www.packagingnews.com.au | January-February 2021
Taking a step closer towards plastic circularity
Plastic waste has captured the attention of the public in recent years, with recognition growing amongst governments and businesses worldwide of the need to search for solutions to transition towards
a circular economy for this valuable material. Jan Arreza reports.
plastics were shipped overseas for processing to return to us as imported products.
That’s no longer the case, according to Wang, whose facility has been established to solve these issues and who believes smart recycling and reuse is vital to support a more sus- tainable way of living.
“It’s not the material that’s the problem, it’s how effectively we are recycling and reusing it, and this is the first large-scale recycling operation of its kind in Australia,” said Wang.
“While we need to cut back on using some types of plastic, we cannot stop using it altogether – plastic is one of the four major materials in the world and so incredibly versatile.
“Previously we relied heavily on China to process recovered plastics, so rather than plastic being sent overseas, reprocessed, then sent back to us, we saw an opportunity to close the loop and find a local sus- tainable solution.”
To boost his ambitions, Wang imported the very latest specialised sorting machinery from the US, which uses robotics and laser identi- fication technology.
Two kilometres of conveyor belts operate within the processing plant, which resembles a giant 3D game of industrial snakes and ladders.
The system is fitted with 14 optical sorters and six AI-driven robotic arms capable of identifying different objects and making intelligent, split- second decisions about where to direct them.
Every day about 20 truckloads of mixed plastics collected from kerbside recycling are delivered to the plant, with about 50 per cent of the material being processed into plastic flakes – most of which are sold to Australian plastic packaging companies.
“In keeping with our commitment to environmental sustainability, we also wanted compressors that gave us the required output and more, but were highly efficient in minimising our energy costs,” said Kevin Smith, ACP chief operations officer.
ONE business pulling out all the stops to deliver a plastics solution is Advanced Circular Polymers (ACP), which runs the country’s largest polymer identification and flake manufacturing plant in Somerton, Victoria.
The $20 million state-of-the-art facility’s development was supported with a $500,000 grant from the state’s Resource Recovery Infrastructure Fund, and has the capacity to collect up to 70,000 tonnes of low-value, con- taminated mixed plastics every year.
Opened in mid-2019, the plant cur- rently employs around 70 people and is powered by renewable energy sourced from Goldwind Australia’s wind farm near Ballarat.
“We are big supporters of reduc- ing 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,” said
Harry Wang, ACP founder and man- aging director.
“We should treat plastic like gold – it is a precious resource that can be used in production again and again.”
Poorly functioning end-use mar- kets for recycled plastics is one of the biggest barriers to achieving a circular plastics economy, and pre- viously, most of the country’s waste
ABOVE: ACP founder Harry Wang (centre) with his crew at their new polymer identification and flake manufacturing facility in Somerton, Victoria.
TOP LEFT & RIGHT: The $20 million state-of- the art facility has the capacity to collect up to 70,000 tonnes of plastics a year for sorting and recycling.
We should treat plastic like gold – it is a precious resource that can be used in production again and again.” — Harry Wang