Converted cartons: Pact Group wins Circular Economy Award

Integrated plastic packaging manufacturing and recycling company Pact Group has won the Circular Economy Award at this year’s Chemistry Australia Industry Awards for its efforts to recycle the equivalent of half a billion used milk bottles a year and turn them into new milk bottles.

The CPA facility can recycle up to 20,000 t of used high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) packaging each year at full operational capacity. This equates to around half a billion 2 L milk bottles.

The facility uses state-of-the-art equipment to sort, shred, wash, sanitise and dry the material before converting it into high-quality food- and non-food-grade resins.

The recycled resin will be used at Pact’s 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.

This award recognises the significant efforts Pact Group is making to recycle used plastic packaging from Australian households to create new packaging, which in turn can be recycled.

Image credit: iStock.com/Yevhen Roshchyn