Regional and Remote Remanufacture NSW grants awarded and project summaries

This program provided regional and remote organisations in New South Wales the opportunity to apply for funding through the Australian Government’s Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF) and NSW Government’s Remanufacture NSW program.

Organisation Project title Amount $
Hay Shire Council Hay Materials Recovery Facility 909,800
Molycop Cootamundra Resource Recovery Facility for HDPE and tyres 840,900
Nowra Chemicals Manufacture Pty Ltd Direct re-use drum washer 49,900
Reform 3D Pty Ltd Reforming recovered polymers using 3D printing 163,731
Scipher Technologies Pty Ltd Scipher e-waste plastics separation and recovery 1,000,000
Shoalhaven City Council Shoalhaven Rubber Crumb Plant project 514,000
Tamworth Regional Council Establishment of Tamworth Regional Resource Recovery Centre 1,000,000
Vinrec Australia Pty Ltd Vinrec Moama new plastic recycling project 355,087
8 projects totalling $4,833,418

Hay Shire Council

Hay Materials Recovery Facility – $909,800

This project will establish a regional Material Recovery Facility based in Hay The facility will recover and reprocess waste from municipal and domestic waste collections, targeting waste streams such as glass, plastics, tyres, paper and cardboard. The facility will also process construction and demolition (C&D) waste as well as domestic recycling waste from the 4 neighbouring councils.

Molycop

Cootamundra Resource Recovery Facility for HDPE and tyres – $840,900

This project involves the collection and processing of waste tyres and rigid high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastics from regional and remote New South Wales to create value added products for industry. This will replace traditional, high embodied carbon raw materials such as steel and virgin plastic resin rubber with recycled substitutes.

Nowra Chemicals Manufacture Pty Ltd

Direct Re-Use Drum Washer – $49,900

This project involves installing a semi-automatic drum wash and rinse system in order to directly reuse 15, 20 and 25 litre high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic drums. This will prevent 7500 drums per year from going to landfill and create two full time equivalent jobs suitable for persons with disabilities.

Reform 3D Pty Ltd

Reforming recovered polymers using 3D printing – $163,731

Reform3d manufactures plastic pipes, culverts, and headwalls for farmers, councils, builders and landscapers. This project will include the purchase of a new palletising line and 3D printing robot cell to increase the capacity to process recovered industrial plastics acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), high impact polystyrene (HIPS) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) at its Albury manufacturing facility. This upgrade will double the production of recycled products, providing a cost effective and viable alternative to products which utilise virgin resources. This project will fuel demand for novel recycled materials, divert 1096 tonnes of hard plastic waste from landfill and contribute to local manufacturing capacity while delivering infrastructure for the local circular economy in New South Wales.

Scipher Technologies Pty Ltd

Scipher e-waste plastics separation and recovery – $1,000,000

This project will establish Australia's first recycling facility capable of recovering clean acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polystyrene (PS) and other valuable fractions (e.g. poly (methyl methacrylate (PMMA)) from e-waste plastics. The separation and recovery technology will remove hazardous components from complex mixed e-waste plastics and recover valuable resins and polymers for re-introduction to the circular economy for electronic consumables. The project represents a commercially viable solution to the Australian Government's ban on the export of recyclable plastics, including all e-waste plastics generated in Australia that are currently either stockpiled or sent to landfill.

Shoalhaven City Council

Shoalhaven Rubber Crumb Plant project – $514,000

This project will utilise tyres and waste rubber materials currently destined for landfill to create a valuable crumbed rubber and mesh powder commodity ready for use in local Shoalhaven civil infrastructure projects; in particular, as a commercial polymer replacement in asphalts and bitumen. The proposed crumbing technology removes 99% of all contaminants and provides Council with an exceptionally high purity product which is attractive to the recycled products market. This project will improve Council's landfill diversion, support local business, reduce Council's costs and improve the environmental performance of Council and its contractors.

Tamworth Regional Council

Establishment of Tamworth Regional Resource Recovery Centre – $1,000,000

This project will establish a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Tamworth to process paper, cardboard and glass recyclables that would otherwise go to landfill. The project aims to sort and process 10,200 tonnes per annum of kerbside and business recycling into cardboard bales for new paper/cardboard and glass fines for road base aggregate. Recycling feedstock will be sourced from local households through the council's kerbside recycling service and commercial and industrial (C&I) businesses in the Tamworth area.

Vinrec Australia Pty Ltd

Vinrec Moama new plastic recycling project – $355,087

This project will establish a new plastic recycling facility in Moama to absorb, wash, shred and dry waste irrigation pipes and plastic bags from local Murray River Council and surrounding areas and, by doing so, divert about 5,000 tonnes of plastic from landfill each year. The shredded flakes will be pelletised into resins and then sold to domestic and global markets.