Plastics circular economy opportunities
Victoria is home to a number of plastic reprocessing facilities, which recycle almost half of the nation’s recovered plastics.
National export regulations for recovered plastics have led to significant opportunities for investors in Victoria.
There is a continuing need for industry to transition to further sort plastics into individual polymers where possible. This enables reprocessors to sell single-polymer plastic streams to domestic and export markets.
Packaging is undergoing federal government regulatory reform, with mandatory design standards and targets, including minimum recycled content within new packaging. These regulations are feeding into an increased demand for recycled plastics from large consumer product brands and manufacturers, leading to innovative ways of recycling problematic low value mixed soft plastics which historically have not had end markets.
The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) is committed to rolling out an industry-led recycling scheme for packaging which works in tandem with these regulations.
The new Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia was launched in 2024. This is among the many stewardship schemes currently in development within the broader plastics industries. The ANZPAC Plastics Pact is also bringing key players together with a shared vision of a circular economy for plastic, to implement industry led innovations and solutions, tailored to the region.
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Opportunities
- Additional infrastructure is required to separate and produce plastic flakes and pellets separated by polymer type.
- Advances in reprocessing technologies (mechanical, chemical and enzymatic) present significant opportunities for traditional hard to recycle plastics such as coloured, flexible and e-waste plastics.
- Victorian resins manufacturing infrastructure can be upgraded to incorporate recycled plastics into new plastic products.
- Recovered plastics can be incorporated into new markets such as substitutes within construction applications.
- The Container Deposit scheme will result in clean streams which enables higher quality recycling outcomes.
- Plastics in Healthcare’ was added to the federal government’s product stewardship priority list in 2023-24.
- The Solving Plastic Waste CRC has been established, as of 1 July 2024, a 10-year cooperative research centre, to assist in solving Australia’s plastic waste problem by enhancing end-user driven collaboration which addresses the current challenges across the entire plastics value chain.
For more information on plastics recycling infrastructure opportunities, refer to the Victorian Recycling Infrastructure Plan.
Stay up to date
For the latest market developments, commodity prices and opportunities read Recycling Victoria’s market insights report for recovered plastic packaging.
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Graphs and data
For more information on waste data visit Recycling Victoria’s Data Hub.
