Re.Group, along with its joint venture partner, Southern Region Waste Resource Authority (SRWRA), has received the Society of Chemical Industry’s 2023 Plant of the Year Award for its South Australian recycling facility.
Key to this plant’s success was the alignment of vision, the companies say, with both parties sharing the belief that there should be no waste, and that no resource should ever be destined for disposal.
“Behind our vision, we took action to ensure the most affordable service for the local community we worked very hard to secure Commonwealth and State funding for, to assist with the capital cost for the facility,” the companies said.
SRWRA provided a site and promptly went about securing the required planning approvals and building an industrial shed to house the plant.
In parallel, the RDT engineering team designed a plant that would set new standards in the Australian and international recycling industry, with key technology implemented by engineering and equipment partner at Machinex.
The goal, which had not been achieved in Australia previously, was for all products from the MRF to be at a 98 per cent purity.
To put this in context, despite some of the best education programs and concerted efforts by the member councils and SRWRA, the average level of contamination in the material presented to the plant for recycling is around 12-15 per cent.
In addition, there are 10 different materials Re.Group is trying to sort and reorder into products – cardboard, mixed paper, glass, ferrous metal, aluminium, PET clear, PET coloured, HDPE milk, HDPE coloured, polypropoelyn, and a mixed plastic.
“We would also like to acknowledge the significant sacrifices made by many people during the Covid-era to bring this plant to fruition and our operating team that every day respect the community by ensuring the resources they present for recycling are recycled,” the company concluded.
