APR Plastics launches a ten-year national expansion to ensure soft plastics circularity.
In the wake of the collapse of collection program REDcycle in 2022, the public has grown weary of the narrative surrounding soft plastics. For many, the sight of stockpiled bags became a symbol of a broken system.
But APR Plastics is moving to change the narrative.
Managing Director Darren Thorpe says too long has been spent focusing on the hurdles rather than the tangible solutions already operating within Australia.
He is aiming to solve the plastic crisis by “meeting the material at its source” with a seven-to-ten-year rollout that will involve APR establishing processing infrastructure in every major state and territory across the nation.
From Perth and Adelaide to Brisbane and Hobart, the plan is to duplicate the company’s proven sorting and pyrolysis technology to ensure that soft plastic generated in any corner of Australia has a viable, local pathway back into the circular economy.
“I don’t want plastic being delivered to me in Melbourne; I want to go to where the plastic is in Western Australia, Brisbane, New South Wales, Adelaide, and the Northern Territory,” Darren says.
“Why should we just have a solution in Victoria when it’s a nationwide solution that’s required?
“Everybody I talk to asks what happens to the plastic still generated in the other states, and they are right – we should be doing something there. We will set up and duplicate what we’re doing in Melbourne so we can process between 40 and 100 tonnes a day in each location to get a better outcome for those soft plastics.”
The national ambition is anchored by a need for a “good news story”. For Darren, rewriting the story means moving beyond the too-hard basket and proving soft plastics – notoriously difficult to sort because of their varied polymer types – can be successfully returned to food-grade packaging.
At the heart of the expansion is a sophisticated sorting facility designed to take the guesswork out of recycling for the public.
Darren says while consumers are eager to participate – surveys indicate that more than 95 per cent of people want to do the right thing when it comes to plastic recycling – most don’t know the difference between polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
APR’s facility uses debagging, magnets, shredders, and optical sorters to isolate the specific polyolefins required for chemical recycling.
Phase one is a $3.5 million sorting facility in Dandenong, in Melbourne’s southeast, which has the capacity to process 100 tonnes a week. Supported by a Sustainability Victoria grant, the facility is currently being commissioned.
By October 2026 a $3 million phase two upgrade, supported by the Federal Government’s Recycling Modernisation Fund, will include an infrared process from Germany to push that capacity to 60 tonnes per day.
This will be the blueprint for the interstate facilities.
Darren rejects the idea that this is just another cycle of stockpiling, pointing to his workforce of 110 people as evidence that the business model is functional and sustainable.
“We need a good news story because there’s been a lot of work going on in these past four to five years to be able to help solve the plastic crisis,” Darren says. “APR has solved that problem with a supply chain that we built and by turning the plastic that we’re capturing into an oil and then back into food-grade packaging.
“I was talking to someone today, and they asked why we aren’t finding ways to replace the plastic, and I said because you can’t – the plastic we’re talking about is the right packaging for the right product.
“We would have a bigger food waste problem if we tried to change the packaging, so we need to find a solution for the packaging itself, and that’s what this sorting facility will do before it goes to our pyrolysis plant.”
APR’s focus remains on the “circular outcome”, and ensuring that 175,000 tonnes of soft plastics nationwide eventually find their way through pyrolysis machines annually, closing the loop for good.
“The good news is out – the recycling of soft plastics is happening, will continue to happen, and has a circular outcome,” Darren says. “We’re very excited to be the forefront of this, and we want to see this all the way through.”
For more information, visit: www.aprplastics.com.au
