Cleanaway’s Kemps Creek facility is providing testing and analysis to support the development of soft plastics recycling in Australia, as part of the Cycleback Plastics joint initiative with Viva Energy Australia.
Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) technology, the facility is identifying the composition of soft plastic materials, assessing their suitability for processing, and generating data to inform future recycling systems.
More than 80 soft plastic samples, representing around 115kg of material, have been tested from sources including bag-in-bin collection trials, commercial businesses, retail recovery models and industry partners. The analysis has provided insights into material composition, contamination levels and requirements for sorting and pre-treatment infrastructure.
Cycleback Plastics is focused on developing an end-to-end pathway for recycling soft plastics. The process involves collecting, sorting and converting end-of-life plastics into pyrolysis oil, which can be used to produce circular food grade plastic resin at Viva Energy’s refinery and polypropylene plant in Geelong.
The initiative is addressing challenges linked to variations in packaging types, polymer combinations and contamination, which affect recycling performance.
At the Kemps Creek laboratory, collected materials undergo visual inspection and FTIR analysis to determine polymer composition and material characteristics. Participating organisations receive reports outlining composition, audit findings and contamination levels, contributing to improved understanding of soft plastic streams.
Testing to date has included materials from supermarkets, large retail chains, commercial businesses and Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia recovery models. Future testing is expected to expand into sectors including SMEs, hospitality, healthcare, universities and the packaging industry.
The program is helping identify material types available across Australia, contamination levels, opportunities to improve sorting and pre-treatment processes, and the suitability of materials for pyrolysis.
Cycleback Plastics remains in the feasibility phase, with work completed across laboratory validation, pre-treatment testing, pyrolysis trials and assessment of processing pathways. This has contributed to identifying technology options, including optical sorting, and requirements for developing consistent feedstock streams.
While local processing infrastructure is still under development, the data generated through the program is contributing to the design of future systems and capabilities for soft plastics recycling in Australia.
