On February 2, 2021, The Morrison and McGowan Governments in Western Australia announced $70 million in joint funding that is expected to drive a more than $174 million recycling boom in Western Australia. Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley, Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management Trevor Evans, and WA Minister for the Environment Stephen Dawson announced the funding under the Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF) program. $20 million from the RMF and $15 million from the State Government will leverage investments across eight new projects processing approximately 140,000 tonnes of Western Australian plastic and tyre waste every year. The Western Australian Government remains committed to awarding $5 million in industrial zoned land in the future. "These are projects that will help our environment, boost the WA economy and create around 200 jobs," Minister Ley said.

"Government is working together with industry to turbo charge the recycling industry in WA and deliver transformational change." Minister Dawson congratulated innovative local businesses for seizing a transformational opportunity for Western Australia.

"It's fantastic to see industry stepping up to the challenges of processing and recovering valuable products from the wastes we produce," Mr Dawson said. "These initiatives are just the start of more and more Western Australian businesses embracing waste as a resource instead of a problem.

"This commitment is not only good for the environment, but it is also good for local jobs and investments." Plastics and tyre projects announced on February 2 include:

  • Kariyarra - Tyrecycle Pty Ltd, a joint venture between Kariyarra Aboriginal Corporation and Tyrecycle based in Port Hedland, will receive over $6.9 million to recycle mining tyres in the Pilbara Region. The recycled material will be sold overseas. The plant will process at least 27,000 tonnes of waste tyres per year.
  • Tyrecycle Pty Ltd will receive almost $5.2 million to invest in equipment to produce 42,000 tonnes of tyre shred and 3,000 tonnes of tyre shred and tyre crumb in the Perth metropolitan region.
  • Complete Tyre Solutions Pty Ltd, a Western Australian owned corporation, will receive $3.5 million to establish a turnkey tyre recycling plant to process waste tyres including car, truck, construction and off the road tyres, into 3mm crumb rubber for use in local road building. The annual processing capacity of the project is more than 9,000 tonnes.
  • Another Western Australian-owned business 4M Waste Pty Ltd will receive more than $2.9 million to expand its operations at a new site to allow recycling of up to 12,000 tonnes of used tyres annually as a crumb rubber product for road construction.
  • $357,867 will be provided to Elan Energy Matrix Pty Ltd for a high-capacity shredder to use in a process line to turn tyres into products such as oil, carbon char and milled steel using thermal processing technology. The Welshpool facility proposes to increase recycled waste tyres by 40 per cent, raising the existing recycling capacity from 5,000 to a total of 7,000 waste tyres per day.
  • Chairay Sustainable Plastic Company will receive over $5.6 million for the construction of a new 15,000 tonne per year plastics reprocessing plant and 6,000 tonne per year sorting line in the Perth metropolitan region to recycle polyolefin and polyester plastics (such as PET, HDPE and polypropylene).
  • D&M Waste Management will receive over $800,000 to recover HDPE and PET waste plastics in Kwinana and HDPE in Karratha. The HDPE will be used to manufacture corrugated HDPE drainage pipes. The new facilities will process between 1,500 and 2,500 tonnes of waste plastics per year.
  • A joint venture between the Pact Group Holdings and Cleanaway that will receive over $9.5 million for a plastics reprocessing facility in east Perth. It will process plastic waste into high quality flakes that can be used to make for food grade and non food grade recycled resin. The new facility will process 17,000 tonnes of waste plastic each year.

Another $15 million from the RMF and $15 million from the WA State Government will go towards tackling 100,000 tonnes of waste paper and cardboard at a new $86.6 million Suez Recycling and Recovery/Auswaste pulp mill in Perth. The plant is expected to be operational before the export ban on mixed paper comes into effect on 1 July 2024 and provide local processing capacity for all the mixed paper and cardboard waste currently exported from Western Australia. Over 60 additional jobs will be created by this project.

Funding for these projects is subject to satisfactory financial due diligence and entering into a funding agreement.

The Assistant Minister for Waste Reduction and Environmental Management Trevor Evans said that the RMF partnership will leverage at least a further $100 million from industry and bring the latest innovations in recycling technology to Western Australia as a result.

"We are increasingly recognising our waste as a valuable resource that can create jobs, spark innovation, and deliver strong environmental outcomes."

"This is particularly the case when we use our waste resources to make valuable new products and close the loop on recycling by buying products that contain recycled content. Every Western Australian has a role to play in achieving this."

The $190 million Recycling Modernisation Fund investment, and measures to support Australia's National Waste Policy Action Plan, will create approximately 10,000 new jobs all around Australia over the next ten years. Additionally, 10 million tonnes of waste will no longer go to landfill.

For further information see the Government Portal of Australia and Government Portal of Western Australia.

Press release by the Government of Western Australia.