Glass facility puts SUEZ on Most Innovative Companies list

SUEZ Australia & New Zealand has ranked fifth on the Australian Financial Review’s BOSS Most Innovative Companies list for its innovative Glass Crushing & Washing Facility, located at the Spring Farm Resource Recovery Park in NSW.

The facility — recognised in the Agriculture, Mining and Utilities category — produces a man-made sand product for applications within the construction industry, including use as a sustainable road base. The innovation was developed to meet changing global market conditions around recyclable materials.

Currently, around 30% of recyclables entering a SUEZ Materials Recovery Facility from local councils and businesses across NSW are glass. SUEZ has historically been sending this glass to external glass recycling facilities, which process the raw product into new bottles. However, a new solution for recycling glass was needed to ensure local councils achieved their sustainability goals.

Assisted by a 50% funding grant from the NSW Environment Protection Authority, the SUEZ team identified an alternative opportunity for recycling and repurposing glass in the construction industry. The processing facility, which can process 15 tonnes per hour, crushes and washes glass particles to a very specific standard.

SUEZ Australia & New Zealand CEO Mark Venhoek was excited to see SUEZ rank highly once again in the AFR BOSS list for the second year running.

“The Innovative SUEZ Glass Crushing & Washing Facility has already delivered over 8000 tonnes of sand to the construction industry to reduce their consumption of raw materials to reuse glass and produce road base,” he said.

“We are also utilising SUEZ’s water treatment expertise and facility on site to reuse the water to effectively remove contaminants from the product.”

With established partners in the construction industry ready to begin commercial use of the product, SUEZ is in the final stages of preparation for full-scale production. Demand for the man-made sand product is expected to meet production volumes within the coming months, ensuring strong return on investment for this project.

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