Joint media release: New soft plastic recycling technology for South Australia

The Hon Tanya Plibersek MP, Minister for the Environment and Water
The Hon Susan Close MP, Acting Premier, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water

More than 14,000 tonnes of soft plastics will be diverted from South Australian landfills every year, thanks to a $20 million investment in advanced recycling technology by the Australian Government.

Recycling Plastics Australia in Kilburn will clean and purify soft plastics such as shopping bags, chip packets and food wrappers to create feedstock for new soft plastic packaging. This will help Australia to develop an advanced recycling supply chain that will turn soft plastic waste back into packaging. The project will deliver 45 jobs.

This project, delivered in partnership with the South Australian Government, is among the first announced under the new Recycling Modernisation Fund Plastics Technology stream.

The $60 million stream funds solutions that increase Australia’s recycling and recovery rates for hard to recycle plastics, enables collection schemes to be scaled up over time, and helps drive Australia’s transition to a safe circular economy.

The Recycling Modernisation Fund is a national initiative expanding Australia’s capacity to sort, process and remanufacture glass, plastic, tyres, paper and cardboard. When combined with co-investment from all states and industry, the Recycling Modernisation Fund will give a $1 billion boost to Australian recycling.

The Australian Government is also supporting soft plastics recycling by improving packaging design through new national packaging laws. These laws will require packaging to be designed to be recovered, reused, recycled and reprocessed safely in line with circular economy principles.

Nationally, the Federal Government is increasing recycling capacity in Australia by more than a million tonnes every year while creating over 3,000 jobs, including over 600 in South Australia.

The innovative Kilburn project has been announced during Plastic Free July - a campaign that appeals to all Australians to do their bit to reduce plastic pollution and waste.

Visit: Investing in Australia's waste and recycling infrastructure - DCCEEW

Quotes attributable to the Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek MP:

“South Australians want to do their part to reduce their waste, reuse and recycle household products, and lighten their impact on the planet.

“This funding is supporting new recycling infrastructure, helping to solve challenges with plastic waste and stop soft plastics from going to landfill, while also supporting jobs and industry.

“It’s great to see state governments committed to getting soft plastics out of landfill and working with industry to see a circular economy for soft plastics in Australia.

“This benefits the environment and the economy. For every job in landfill, there are three jobs in recycling.

“The Albanese Government is committed to working with states and territories to better manage waste and increase recycling capacity, including for soft plastics, and better protect our environment for future generations.”

Quotes attributable to Deputy Premier of South Australia, Susan Close:

“The South Australian government has been taking action to ban more and more unnecessary single-use plastic with bans on all soft plastic shopping bags and single-use plastic including coffee cups from 1 September this year.

“I applaud the Commonwealth for this significant investment which acknowledges both the need for this service, and the strength of South Australia’s existing resource recovery and recycling industry."

“Scaling up equipment and personnel to tackle the challenge of soft plastic recycling is the first step into rebuilding the infrastructure we need for an effective supermarket ‘take back’ scheme is essential."

Quote attributable to Peter Gregg, Chair, Recycling Plastics Australia:

“Recycling Plastics Australia has a proud history leading the circular economy by recycling plastics that are difficult to process.”

“We are grateful that the Australian and South Australian Governments have supported this $40 million dollar project that is to transform soft plastics recycling in Australia.’

“This funding will see our Kilburn site in South Australia become the prominent soft-plastic recycling processor in the country, with materials recycled here and sold into local and global packaging markets.”