Eight new plants worth $111m. funded in 2021 to recycle paper, plastics, glass, cardboard and tyres around Adelaide

The recycling push in South Australia anticipated the ban of exporting unprocessed materials.
Image courtesy ABC News, Adelaide
South Australia’s recycling industry was boosted in 2021 with eight new projects worth $111 million receiving $35.3 million of joint state and Australian governments funding under the recycling modernisation fund. This boosted the state’s ability to process waste in the wake of the bans on the export of unprocessed waste plastic, paper and cardboard, glass and tyres. The projects to be funded were:
- $7,920,000 for the Northern Adelaide Waste Management Authority in Edinburgh North for a plant to sort and remove impurities from paper and cardboard and process more than 40,000 tonnes of fibre a year – a third more than the valume of material South Australia had been exporting for recycling each year. (Total project value: $12,000,000)
- $8,000,000 for Orora Group in Kingsford (near Gawler) to set to remove impurities from glass waste to produce high-quality containers like wine bottles. (Total project value: $18,816,000)
- $1,222,000 for Advanced Plastics Recycling in Edinburgh to increase the manufacturing of recycling common waste plastic into durable products like long-life decking, bollards and outdoor furniture. (Total project value: $4,125,000)
- $8,888,000 for Recycling Plastics Australia to improve their site and equipment at Kilburn to maximise mixed plastics sorting, grinding, washing and pelletising. (Total project value: $25,000,000)
- $3,140,000 for the Southern Region Waste Resource Authority to equip a state-of-the-art material recovery plant equipment at Seaford Heights to process kerbside recyclables from households in Adelaide’s southern councils. (Total project value: $24,378,083)
- $4,110,000 for the Central Adelaide Waste and Recycling Authority in Kilburn to equip a state-of-the-art material recovery plant to process kerbside recyclables from households in Adelaide’s central metropolitan councils. (Total project value: $23,199,551)
- $1,078,000 for ResourceCo in Wingfield to build a plant to recover and produce glass “fines” used in the building industry. (Total project value: $1,838,774)
- $962,000 for TyreCycle to improve their tyre recycling plant in Lonsdale to deliver export-quality products that comply with waste export bans on unprocessed tyres coming into effect in December 2021. (Total project value: $1,624,000)