Page 10 - Packaging News May-June 2021

10 NEWS |
Visy to invest $35m in
glass facility upgrade
www.packagingnews.com.au | May-June 2021
From left: Martogg’s Austen Ramage and
Greg Kerslake with Sustainable Sally Williams and Trevor Evans at Martogg’s manufacturing facility in Victoria.
Martogg increases rPET capacity
PACKAGING and recycling giant, Visy, has announced a $35 mil- lion upgrade of its Laverton glass recycling centre, in a clear endorsement of the Andrews Labor Government’s new Container Deposit Scheme (CDS).
The proposed upgrade is expected to create 92 jobs dur- ing construction and a further six ongoing positions once com- pleted. It will double the cen- tre’s recycling capacity from 100,000 tonnes of glass each year to 200,000 – equivalent to 150 glass bottles recycled for every Victorian every year.
Visy’s centre at Laverton cur- rently operates by sorting glass 10mm in size or larger. Once
this upgrade is complete, the new facility will be able to sort glass down to 3mm in size – boosting recycling opportuni- ties and diverting even more glass from landfill.
Set to start in 2023, the Victoria CDS will maximise the return of used drink cans, bot- tles, and cartons for recycling – reducing the state’s litter vol- ume by up to 50 per cent.
“Investment like this [from Visy] paves the way for our CDS to completely transform how we recycle in Victoria – ensuring a glass bottle can become a glass bottle again, and again, and again,” said acting premier, James Merlino. ■
The upgrade will double the centre’s recycling capacity.
MARTOGG has commissioned a third Vacurema Line to increase capacity of Australian-made, food-grade, recycled PET for the local packaging industry.
The company’s largest line to date, it will contribute an addi- tional 12,000 tonnes of rPET, taking the company’s capacity to 23,000 tonnes per annum.
Trevor Evans, Assistant Minister for Waste Management and the Environment, visited Martogg’s sales and manufac- turing facility located in Dandenong South, Victoria, for a tour of the facility,
The visit also included a closer look at Martogg’s marPET process and production facility. Discussions were held on the current and future investment
focus on sustainable resins for the Australian packaging indus- try, as well as the partnership with Sustainable Sally, which spearheads a focus on education to all stakeholders – from con- sumers to brands – around the importance of Australian-made, recycled content.
“This is exactly what all Australians want to see – Australia becoming more self- sufficient and self-reliant,” Evans said.
Supporting Martogg’s invest- ment in its circular vision, Evans said Australia needs to develop the infrastructure and facilities to recover waste plas- tics, recycle them, and turn them into the next-generation of products on our retail shelves. ■
Woolworths, Detpak paper bag rollout
WOOLWORTHS’ national rollout of paper shopping bags manufac- tured by Australian paper pack- aging converter Detpak is hitting its straps and has seen the cre- ation of 25 new jobs and invest- ment in new machinery at Det- pak’s South Australia facility.
Following the announcement in December last year that Woolworths would be onshoring paper bag manufacturing in a multi-million dollar partnership with Detpak, the rollout has begun in earnest, with the locally made bags now available in the retailer’s Victoria, Tasmania, and Western Australia stores. Bags have been available
in South Australia and Northern Territory since last year.
Tom Lunn, group general manager – marketing & innova- tion and head of sustainability for Detpak, says it is expected that bags will be available in ACT and NSW by the end of the year, once two additional bag- making machines come onstream by October.
Lunn told PKN the investment in local manufacturing has been significant, with Detpak’s Adelaide facility seeing the installation of new bag forming and end-of-line equipment to build capacity. He said the new jobs created have largely been in
operations, technicians, and logistics roles.
“An important part of the project, to create the full circu- lar capability, was working in conjunction with a local paper mill to develop the material to the right strength and specifica- tions,” Lunn said.
The fully recyclable bag is made from 70 per cent recycled paper in conjunction with un- recycled paper to provide a struc- ture strong enough to carry up to six kilograms.
The bag’s recyclability ensures consumers can dispose of their bag conveniently via kerbside bins, enabling these
bags to ‘live again’ as part of a circular economy.
Lunn told PKN that Detpak is also working with other retail- ers as it grows capacity to supply products that will meet their requirements for circular, waste buy-back models. ■