By Molly Magennis
A new PET plastic recycling facility will be built in Altona North, with the facility set to be the largest of its kind in Victoria once completed.
The new facility is a result of a partnership between Pact Group, Cleanaway, Asahi Beverages and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), and will drive a significant increase in the state’s PET recycling capacity.
The plant will be built on Horsburgh Drive, with construction set to start early this year and finish in 2023.
The project will cost around $50 million, and is expected to create more than 100 local jobs during the construction phase and 45 permanent roles once it’s complete.
Each facility will be capable of processing the equivalent of around one billion plastic bottles, to be collected through Container Deposit Schemes and kerbside recycling each year. This will be converted into more than 20,000 tonnes of recycled PET bottles and food packaging by each facility.
Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley and Victorian Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister Lily D’Ambrosio announced $6 million dollars would go towards the project.
Ms D’Ambrosio said the money will help boost local jobs and increase the state’s recycling capacity.
“Funding and facilitating projects like this will help Victoria reach our goal of diverting 80 per cent of waste sent to landfill by 2030, improving our circular economy and tackling climate change.”
Cleanaway chief executive and managing director Mark Schubert said the facility was a big step towards Victoria creating its own ‘domestic circular economy’.
“Cleanaway is excited to be part of providing customers access to high circularity infrastructure as we work towards making a sustainable future possible together.”
The new facility will be the second PET recycling plant to be built by the joint partnership, following the construction of a similar plant in Albury-Wodonga which will be fully operational next month.
