SA-based recycling specialist Adelaide Resource Recovery (ARR) is experiencing strong overseas demand after exporting more than 500 tonnes of waste plastic to China since late last year.

The pioneering company, which operates from Adelaide’s Wingfield Recycling Centre, is receiving regular inquiries from businesses in Hong Kong and China that are keen to buy SA’s waste plastic.

ARR (www.arr.net.au) is a South Australian company committed to the comprehensive recycling of construction and demolition materials into valuable resources.

During the past nine months, ARR has exported more than 22 containers, each holding 21 tonnes of cleaned and baled waste plastic, which would normally be sent to landfill. Extracted from the mixed waste stream that comes into ARR’s 20-hectare Wingfield sorting facility, plastic waste ranges from soft plastics such as carry bags to hard plastics such as the strapping used to bind construction materials.

ARR sales and marketing manager Hugh Hocking said most of the inquiries were coming from businesses in Hong Kong or China. “In the past nine months, we’ve shipped more than 500 tonnes of waste plastic overseas,” he said.

“Once our customers receive it, they ‘pelletise’ the plastic, so that it comes out looking like granules. For them, it’s a replacement for virgin raw plastic.

“Our waste plastic is used in a range of new products ranging from manufacturing automotive components to construction materials such as flooring strapping and buckets.

“For ARR, the beauty of this new business is that this waste plastic would normally go to landfill, which would cost us money. With some plastics selling for up to $500 a tonne, this way it actually earns us income and it’s doing the right thing for the environment.”

As well as providing a full-time job for the baler operator, ARR”s waste plastic export operation has created demand for additional labour on the sorting line, where plastics are extracted from the general waste stream received at the ARR Wingfield operation.

Mr. Hocking said ARR exported all the plastic it could get hold of. “It’s definitely in demand,” he said.

“As the price of oil goes up, so does the price of raw material plastics: Demand has grown as companies have begun to realise they can make new products from recycled plastics. We now regularly have people calling us to ask if they can buy our plastic.”

For media assistance:

Call John Harris at Impress Media Australia on 08 8431 4000 or email jharris@impress.com.au.
For more information about Adelaide Resource Recovery, visit www.arr.net.au.

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