Cleanaway Waste Management recently opened a recycling facility in Western Sydney, which it claims is the most advanced of its kind in Australia.
Located in Rooty Hill, the material recovery facility (MRF) will process up to 120,000 tonnes of commercial and residential recyclables per year.
It will use cutting-edge technologies such as ballistic separators, wind sifting and optical sorting based on colour and shape, eddy currents and magnets, with a reported capability for up to 99.5 percent purity across recovered recycled material.
Cleanaway says the new facility will improve the quality and increase the volume of resources recovered from New South Wale’s commingled recycling.
The company confirmed that Blacktown City Council is the foundational partner of the facility.
The need to modernise Australia’s recycling sector
The country’s waste industry directly and indirectly employs more than 50,000 people.
Media reports have indicated that Sydney produces more than 3.5 million tonnes of waste annually and accounts for over 50 percent of NSW’s total waste.
Cleanaway chief executive officer and managing director Mark Schubert said the facility would advance circularity in NSW, while supporting the recycling needs of Sydney’s growing population. “Cleanaway has invested in the most advanced equipment and infrastructure enabling the company to achieve some of Australia’s highest material recovery and purity rates,” he said. .
The recycled materials will have several uses. By way of a partnership with Circular Plastics Australia in Altona and Laverton, plastics from the MRF, will be pelletised to create high-quality food-grade resin for reuse in plastic containers and packaging for soft drink bottles and yogurt containers.
Schubert called the latest facility a “gamechanger for Sydney”. “The MRF is a best-in-class Cleanaway asset that will set a new standard for fire safety, environmental control and resource recovery,” Schubert said.
Photographs: Supplied
Tasmania initiates container recycling rewards scheme
