One of Australia’s biggest paper recycling facilities will be built in South East Queensland with plans to turn 220,000 tonnes of waste paper and cardboard from across Queensland and northern New South Wales into pulp annually for export. Source: Timberbiz
The Albanese and Queensland Labor Governments have partnered with Brisbane-based national company AusWaste Recycling to build a $137 million wastepaper recycling facility at Brendale.
“AusWaste Recycling is pleased to be part of a national approach to resource recovery that recognises the opportunity to use an existing global supply chain to achieve the scale needed to create a meaningful impact on how Australia manages waste and recycling,” AusWaste Recycling Director, Vincent Liang said.
“Our core business is the export of commodities like processed pulp from wastepaper which are sought after in foreign markets.
“The ARPPP will strengthen our national recycling industry, increase capabilities and create new jobs.
“Instead of baling and shipping wastepaper we’ll be processing and manufacturing a higher-value product.
“We already have well-established relationships in Asia with paper mill operators who are seeking paper pulp and the ARPPP will mean we’re ideally positioned to provide it to them.
“We see South East Queensland as the ideal location for a new facility that can process waste paper supplied from across the state and into northern New South Wales.”
The Australian Recycled Pulp and Paper Project (ARPPP) is supported by a joint investment of $40 million from the Commonwealth and state Labor governments through the Recycling Modernisation Fund. Industry is also playing a key role, contributing $97 million to the total project cost.
This project will support approximately 195 construction jobs and 58 ongoing jobs.
The ARPPP will process waste including used packaging, newspaper, coffee cups, milk cartons and office paper into value-added paper pulp for paper mills.
It will elevate Australia’s position in the global wastepaper and cardboard recycling market and it will contribute to the achievement of Queensland’s waste recovery and recycling targets.
Construction of the ARPPP is expected to begin in mid 2024 and be completed in mid 2025.
This funding is part of a $1 billion boost to recycling infrastructure that will add over one million tonnes of processing capacity across the country every year, keeping valuable materials out of landfill while supporting new jobs.
“The new facility will supercharge recycling in Queensland. It means that paper and cardboard waste, like egg cartons and cereal boxes, can be sorted and processed in Queensland,” Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek MP said.
“And this is just one of 24 recycling projects that we are funding across Queensland. These projects are creating 740 jobs and will process an extra 364,000 tonnes of waste. That’s the equivalent to over 27 Story Bridges of waste being kept out of landfill every year.
“This is a win for the environment, a win for jobs and a win for Queensland.”
