The new Orora glass beneficiation plant in South Australia has begun operations, with the $25m facility set to recycle 150,000 tonnes of post-consumer glass each year, which will go into the company’s glass manufacturing plant next door.
Orora CEO Brian Lowe and South Australia Deputy Premier Susan Close officially opened the highly automated plant this morning. The SA and Commonwealth governments provided some $8m of the funding for the new plant.
With just 12 staff and the latest optical technology, the highly automated plant will remove impurities from used broken glass through crushing, cleaning and sorting, to deliver crushed contaminant-free glass, ready for manufacture into new products.
The company says the new plant will enable the 900 million glass bottles manufactured at the company’s Gawler plant to have an average of 60 per cent recycled content by 2025. All the recycled glass will be used by Orora for its beverage products, which includes bottles for wine, beer, carbonated soft drinks, kombucha, water and olive oil.
The new plant took just a year to build, overcoming supply chain issues, and bringing in the latest European technology for its automated sorting process.
Orora CEO Brian Lowe described the beneficiation plant as a major milestone in the company’s sustainability journey. “Our new world-class beneficiation plant is a significant achievement as it will increase the amount of recycled glass used in our manufactured products, allowing us to process up to 150,000 tonnes each year – that’s equivalent to approximately 330 million wine bottles or 750 million beer bottles. Not only does this progress Orora’s sustainability agenda, it enhances our ability to support our customers’ sustainability goals, in turn contributing to the circular economy and the sustainability of the Australian glass industry.”
Lowe said, “Together with our new oxygen fuelled furnace at Gawler, we are offering our customers a low emission, highly recycled product.”
Close said, “Consumers are increasingly demanding recycled packaging, and this project makes a significant contribution to the circular economy and the sustainability of the glass industry in this state.
“We value the investment of the Commonwealth and SA government – it aligns to the government’s focus on increasing Australia’s capacity to generate high value recycled commodities, investing in recycling and waste infrastructure, as well as creating new opportunities to recover and reuse resources.”
Lowe said that the company saw plenty of opportunity for growth in the domestic glass business, saying, “Australia is still a net importer of glass bottles, which could be manufactured here, and would save on emissions in transport.”
Lowe also said the beginnings of rapprochement in Australia’s trading relationship with China was good to see, but said Orora was not counting on a resumption of the wine trade, for which the company was a major glass bottle supplier. Since the wine tariffs came into play, which ended most of Australia’s wine exports to China, Orora has pivoted into new business areas, and has replaced all the lost business. Lowe said, “Any easing of restrictions would be good news, and we would be ready to supply winemakers, but we will have to wait and see.”
A transition away from plastic bottles has not yet begun, with Lowe saying if it does happen it will more likely be to aluminium cans rather than glass bottles. The company is investing some $200m in can production over the next three to four years.