As Australia grapples with polymer supply chain vulnerability, Viva Energy is pursuing a vision that combines local manufacturing, advanced recycling and strategic partnerships to strengthen the nation’s packaging resilience.
For Viva Energy, Australia’s conversation about supply chain resilience extends well beyond fuel security.
The company believes recent global disruptions have exposed a broader vulnerability – the nation’s dependence on imported polymers that underpin much of its packaging manufacturing capability. While geopolitical instability brought those risks into sharp focus, Viva Energy says it has also strengthened the case for building a more resilient domestic polymer supply chain.
That vision sits behind a growing portfolio of circular polymer projects centred on the company’s Geelong Refinery, culminating most recently in a proof-of-concept project with Nestlé that demonstrates how food grade recycled polypropylene can be manufactured locally and returned to food-grade packaging.
Speaking to PKN, James Harrington, Polymers sales and commercial manager at Viva Energy, says the recent Strait of Hormuz disruption exposed how vulnerable Australia’s polymer supply chain remains.
“Everyone could understand the impact on crude oil and fuel, but there was probably a lack of recognition of how much Asian polymer manufacturing is underpinned by chemical feedstocks from the Gulf.
“As conflict escalated and the Strait of Hormuz closed, we saw our supply sources dry up overnight. What had been a stable supply environment quickly became one of heightened uncertainty, with reduced supply availability and significant pricing pressures across the market.”
The experience, he says, reinforced the need to strengthen Australia’s domestic polymer capability.
Looking beyond fuel
While Geelong has long been recognised for its role in Australia’s fuel supply, Viva Energy increasingly sees the refinery as strategic manufacturing infrastructure.
Australia imports 100 per cent of virgin polyethylene resin and approximately 70 per cent of virgin polypropylene resin used by local manufacturers, leaving packaging producers exposed to global supply disruptions.
“Today, the Geelong refinery supplies around 30 per cent of local polypropylene demand with a particular focus on food packaging, demonstrating the role Australian manufacturing can play in strengthening supply chain resilience and supporting local industry,” Harrington says. “There’s a significant opportunity to strengthen Australia's manufacturing capability, and Geelong is well positioned to play an important role in meeting more of that demand locally.”
During the recent disruption, Viva Energy diversified supply pathways, sourced alternative feedstocks and relied on strategic inventory to maintain supply while global markets adjusted.
But the longer-term response, Harrington says, is not simply finding more overseas suppliers. It is about creating more capability in Australia.
A circular manufacturing model
That ambition is illustrated by Viva Energy’s latest collaboration with Nestlé.
In a chemical process known as pyrolysis, post-consumer soft plastics can be transformed into pyrolysis oil which can serve as a feedstock to produce new plastics. US chemical recycler and technology licensor Alterra produces pyrolysis oil in Akron, Ohio and supplied the oil for this project to the Viva Energy Geelong refinery.
The project demonstrated that pyrolysis oil derived from soft plastics can be processed at Geelong into recycled polypropylene suitable for food-grade flexible packaging, before moving through an entirely Victorian manufacturing supply chain involving Taghleef Industries, Amcor and Nestlé completing a production run of seven million wrappers. A limited run of KitKat 4 Fingers have now been packaged using these wrappers.
Although the trial relied on imported pyrolysis oil because suitable Australian feedstock is not yet available at scale, it demonstrated that the manufacturing capability already exists.
Viva Energy executive general manager Energy and Infrastructure Bill Patterson says the project demonstrates how existing industrial infrastructure can underpin a future circular plastics economy.
“The Geelong Refinery is Australia’s last remaining site with this level of refining and processing capability and it’s the only manufacturer of polypropylene,” Patterson says.
“We have proven the use of soft plastics pyrolysis oil as a feedstock and demonstrated how existing industrial infrastructure can be adapted to support a circular plastics economy.”
For Harrington, however, the project represents something larger than a packaging innovation.
“We’ve got all the right partners here,” he says.
“We can make the resin, Taghleef can make the film, Amcor can convert that, and Nestlé can package it all within Victoria. But what is missing is large scale, local supply of quality pyrolysis oil.”
Completing the missing link
Producing plastic pyrolysis oil at the right scale and quality is the objective of Viva Energy’s joint initiative with Cleanaway known as Cycleback Plastics, which aims to establish a commercial-scale pathway for converting Australian soft plastic waste into refinery feedstock.
The feasibility study to jointly build and operate a 50,000 tonnes per annum facility transforming post-consumer soft plastics into plastic pyrolysis oil is expected to move into Front-End Engineering and Design once Federal Government’s packaging reforms have been finalised.
The collaboration is designed to bring together complementary capabilities: Cleanaway’s national waste collection and resource recovery expertise, and Viva Energy’s refining, processing and polymer manufacturing capability infrastructure at Geelong.
By linking post-consumer soft plastic recovery with a refinery-scale pathway for producing circular feedstock, the companies are seeking to close one of the most significant gaps in Australia’s plastics value chain by creating the infrastructure for locally collected material to be transformed back into high-value packaging applications.
For Viva Energy and Cleanaway, however, building the technical pathway is only part of the challenge.
Large-scale investment will also require confidence that Australia will establish the policy framework needed to support domestic collection systems, advanced recycling infrastructure and long-term demand for recycled polymers.
Policy as an enabler
Viva Energy, Nestlé and Cleanaway argue that Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) with recycled content mandates will play a critical role in moving projects such as this beyond demonstration scale.
Harrington says investment certainty is the missing ingredient.
“Without that regulation, it’s very hard for people to invest in solutions such as Cycleback Plastics.”
Nestlé Oceania general manager Confectionery and Snacks Andrew Lawrey agrees.
“EPR has an important role to play in creating the investment certainty needed to scale Australia’s recycling system,” he says.
“Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia (SPSA) gives industry a practical way to start building that system now, creating the scale and feedstock needed to support local recycling investment.”
“Maintaining momentum on EPR and supporting sovereign recycling capability will be critical to unlocking circularity at scale and keeping valuable materials in the local economy.”
Recent global events have reinforced that packaging is fundamental infrastructure for Australia’s food system.
As Lawrey puts it: “Soft plastic should be treated as a key material, not a waste stream...if we cannot package food, we cannot move it, sell it, or keep it on shelves.”
That shift in thinking may, ultimately, be the project’s greatest contribution.
Viva Energy is positioning circular polymers as part of Australia’s broader manufacturing resilience. If the policy settings, infrastructure investment and industry partnerships can align, the company believes Australia has the opportunity to build a domestic polymer supply chain that is not only more circular, but also more secure.
This article was first published in the Q3 September 2026 print issue of PKN Packaging News, p12.
