Despite your best recycling efforts at home, collection and sorting challenges at recycling plants mean many plastic items such as yoghurt, margarine or ice cream tubs are sold to China as mixed plastic bales for sorting - or in worst case scenarios end up in landfill.
But not any more.
This is all changing thanks, in part, to a project called the ‘Rigid plastic packaging recycling project’ funded by the National Packaging Covenant, a unique government and industry group set up to increase the sustainability, use and recovery of packaging in Australia.
The ‘Rigid plastic packaging recycling project’ discovered that by separating the rigid plastic #5 containers then freeing them of contamination, grinding them into flakes and feeding them into a machine called an extruder, the product could be melted down giving a second life to make new products.
This is just one of more than 50 diverse projects across Australia, worth a total of $47 million, which are funded by the National Packaging Covenant.
For Geoff Williams, strategic market analyst from Basell Australia, finding a way to recycle polypropylene was a rewarding experience.
“The project showed that it is both technically and economically feasible to recycle polypropylene, and there are now a variety of suitable markets for the recyclate," Williams says.
"We investigated the economics of offering a recycled material that can substitute virgin product in many applications, and determined that it is viable.”
“Diversion from landfill is a key objective, and this study showed that recycling polypropylene can be cost effective."
"It gives you a great feeling knowing that promoting the closed-loop recycling of certain plastic products such as ice cream tubs and yoghurt pots is beneficial for the environment.”
CEO of the National Packaging Covenant, Ed Cordner says the project is an excellent example of how the National Packaging Covenant uses product stewardship and works with supply chain partners including raw material companies, brand owners and packaging manufacturers to improve the environmental performance of packaging.
The project was a team approach co-ordinated by the Polypropylene Industry Recycling Group - Sealed Air/Cryovac, Huhtamaki, Basell Australia Pty Ltd (a LyondellBasell group company) and managed by Polysearch, all with the assistance of PACIA (Plastics and Chemicals Industries Association).
Some products and pictures which the recycled plastic #5 can be made into are below:
1. Bar stools (reinforcing steel supports)
2. Cable reels
3. Car under trays
4. Compost bins
5. Export pallets
6. Pot planters
7. Trenching products (drain trenching and surface water drainage channel grate)
8. binder/folders
9. Water tank grids
Together we can make a change.
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