May 2, 2024 -- Pact has won the Circular Economy Award at this year’s Chemistry Australia Industry Awards for our plan to recycle the equivalent of half a billion used milk bottles a year and turn them into new milk bottles and other packaging.
The prestigious Circular Economy award.
The used milk bottles and other dairy containers are collected from household recycling bins and then processed at the Pact-operated Circular Plastics Australia (CPA) mixed plastics recycling plant in the Melbourne suburb of Laverton.
The CPA facility, which is a joint venture with Cleanaway Waste Management, opened earlier this year and can recycle up to 20,000 tonnes of used high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) packaging each year at full operational capacity. This equates to around half a billion 2L milk bottles.
Questions around this news
What did Pact receive the Circular Economy Award for?
Pact received the award at the Chemistry Australia Industry Awards for a plan to recycle used milk bottles and other dairy packaging into new bottles and other packaging. The release says the project aims to process material equivalent to half a billion two-litre milk bottles each year.
How are used milk bottles turned into new packaging?
The release says used milk bottles and other dairy containers are collected through household recycling bins and processed at a mixed-plastics recycling plant in Laverton, Melbourne. The resulting recycled resin is intended for use at packaging manufacturing facilities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, where upgrades are being made to increase recycled content in HDPE milk bottles.
What does a circular economy mean?
A circular economy aims to keep materials and products in use for as long as possible, rather than treating them as waste after one use. Approaches can include reuse, repair and recycling, with the goal of returning recovered materials to production and reducing reliance on newly extracted resources.
What is a joint venture?
A joint venture is a business arrangement in which two or more parties work together on a defined activity or enterprise. The parties may contribute assets, expertise or funding and agree how responsibilities, control and outcomes will be shared. The arrangement can be structured in different ways depending on its purpose and terms.
The recycled resin will be used at our packaging manufacturing facilities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth which are being upgraded to enable an increase in the use of recycled content used to make HDPE milk bottles and dramatically reduce the need for virgin plastic.
Congratulations to the team at the CPA recycling plant and all the packaging manufacturing teams making milk bottles at our facilities around Australia.
Sales Manager Geoff Harvey accepting the award.
Pact sales team and customers enjoy the night.
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At a glance
- Company
- Pact
- Announcement
- Award
- Location
- Laverton, Melbourne
Key figures
- Annual recycling capacity at full operational capacity
- 20,000 tonnes
- Equivalent number of 2L milk bottles
- half a billion
People
- Geoff HarveySales Manager
