Nine recycling projects across Western Australia will share in $44.1 million funding to improve recycling capabilities across the state, as part of a plan to build new and upgrade existing facilities.
The projects, jointly funded by the Federal and Western Australian governments as part of the Recycling Modernisation Fund, will divert an additional 143,000 tonnes of material from Western Australia’s landfills every year.
The new and upgraded facilities will sort, process and recycle used plastics, tyres, paper and cardboard into valuable new products, such as plastic pipe.
Funded projects include a tyre recycling and devulcanization facility that will process 12,000 tonnes of off-the-road tyres each year into material that can be used to make new rubber-based products.
Industry will contribute an additional $55.7 million to the projects. When combined with co-investment from all states and industry, the Recycling Modernisation Fund will give a $1 billion boost to Australian recycling.
Tanya Plibersek, Minister for the Environment and Water, said Western Australians and industry want to do the right thing and recycle their waste.
“This funding is supporting new recycling infrastructure for both households and industry to recycle more of their waste,” she said.
“We want to better protect nature and reverse decline for our kids and grandkids – and that takes all levels of government working together.”
Reece Whitby, Western Australian Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Action, said Western Australia is making strong progress towards a sustainable future including through recycling and he was pleased to see the Commonwealth government recognising the state’s industry and supporting job creation.
“With Western Australia generating almost half of the nation’s off-the-road mining tyre waste, the Western Australian Government is particularly pleased to be supporting multiple projects which will assist the mining industry to improve the recovery and recycling off-the-road tyres,” he said.
Other project to receive funding included:
AusWaste Recycling Pty Ltd received $10 million to build a new paper and cardboard processing facility to increase Western Australia’s capacity for domestic sorting, processing and manufacturing of paper and cardboard materials by 50,000 tonnes each year.
East-West Pilbara Rubber Recycling Pty Ltd received $675,000 of land allocation to establish a dedicated off-the-road tyre recycling and devulcanization facility in Port Hedland capable of processing 12,000 tonnes each year.
Matters Enterprises Pty Ltd received $5 million to establish a new end-of-life off-the-road tyre collection, sorting and grading facility in Newman in the Pilbara. The facility will also purchase, install and commission off-the-road tyre recycling and rubber recycling technology at RubberGem’s existing facility in Rockingham.
Pro-Pac Group Pty Ltd received $2.5 million to build capability and capacity to remanufacture soft plastic recycled content into high performance packaging at its existing industrial and agricultural film manufacturing facility in Kewdale.
Remondis Australia Pty Ltd received $8.5 million to expand its current plastic waste processing operations at a purpose-built recycling facility located in Jandakot.
Shire of Exmouth received $255,000 to purchase and install a horizontal baler machine and storage facility to bale large volumes of cardboard for recycling.
T C Waste (WA) Pty Ltd trading as D & M Waste Management received $4.3 million of land allocation to establish a Pilbara facility providing efficient management of end-of-life HDPE pipe from remote mine sites transforming it to high quality pipes for water management.
Veolia Recycling & Recovery ANZ Pty Ltd received $8.3 million to install new equipment at the Bibra Lake Material Recovery Facility to enable the secondary sorting of mixed fibre. The upgraded sorting facility has been designed to accept 40,000 tonnes of mixed paper and cardboard.
Complete Tyre Solutions Tyre Recycling Pty Ltd received $4.5 million to expand tyre rubber crumb recycling at its Neerabup tyre recycling facility. This project will have the capacity to recover up to 3,624 tonnes each year of end-of-life tyres, including the tyres used on mining haul trucks.
For more information, Investing in Australia’s waste and recycling infrastructure – DCCEEW
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