Central Adelaide Waste and Recycling Authority (CAWRA) has announced the appointment of Visy Recycling as the operator of its new state-of-the-art Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Kilburn, South Australia.
“After an extensive and competitive procurement process CAWRA takes great pleasure in announcing Visy Recycling as the appointed operator for the our new MRF in Kilburn,” said CAWRA Executive Officer, Rebekah Schubert.
“Visy Recycling is Australia’s largest and most experienced recycling company,” said Ms Schubert.
“They bring not only their knowledge and expertise in running recycling plants, but also their extensive network of Australian reprocessing facilities to recycle everything from paper and cardboard, to a wide range of plastics and glass,” said Rebekah.
CAWRA’s $23.2m facility is in its final stages of construction, and will receive recyclables from household (yellow lid) recycling bins from the following Councils when it opens in September:
- City of Charles Sturt
- City of Port Adelaide Enfield
- City of West Torrens
- Mount Barker District Council
- Rural City of Murray Bridge
- and other Councils if and as required.
“Our goal is to build the local circular economy by prioritising local markets. We’d prefer to recycle it here,” said Ms Schubert.
Under the new arrangement, CAWRA and Visy will work together to channel South Australia’s recyclables back into the South Australian manufacturing economy. Paper and cardboard processed at the facility will be used as feedstock for Visy’s recycled paper mills to go into new food and beverage packaging.
“It means we will always have somewhere for our recycling to go, right here in Australia and, we will keep this local, in South Australia, at every opportunity to help grow our local circular economy,” said Ms Schubert.
“Visy is delighted to be working so closely with CAWRA, and will transition all of our South Australian recycling operations to CAWRA’s brand new state of the art facility in September,” said Wayne Russell, Visy’s Executive General Manager for Recycling.
“This new facility will mean we can take the contents of local residents’ kerbside recycling bins and turn it back into new packaging, again and again and again.”
CAWRA’s new MRF has been designed with the latest in optical sorting technology to produce clean commodities ideal for developing local markets. Its design future-proofs South Australia’s kerbside recycling sector, with a strong focus on reducing fire risk. A dedicated education room and elongated viewing platform allows for safe first-hand observation of the entire recycling process, making the centrally located MRF a ‘destination of choice’ for tours and school visits.
Ms Schubert said CAWRA was grateful for the support of the Government of South Australia and the Commonwealth Government towards the establishment of the new facility, with $4.36 million in funding assistance provided to date.
“CAWRA also acknowledges the work of Pascale Construction and Wastech Engineering in the design and construction of the new facility,” she said.