Flight Plastics opens Australasia's first PET plastic wash plant in Lower Hutt
By Tina Morrison
Aug. 2 (BusinessDesk) - Flight Plastics, the New Zealand plastic packaging manufacturer, has opened the first plant in
Australasia able to recycle local polyethylene terephthalate (PET) drink bottles into food-grade packaging.
The privately owned Lower Hutt-based company today opened its new PET wash plant as part of a $12 million technology
investment at its local production facility, which allows it to produce recycled PET (RPET) packaging made from New
Zealand waste bottles which have been washed, shredded, turned into RPET flakes, made into RPET sheet and thermoformed
into new RPET food containers, it said in a statement.
Options for sending recycling overseas are narrowing as countries such as China move to ban the importation of waste and
recyclables from other countries. That's forcing countries such as New Zealand to find their own recycling solutions,
and with the new plant Flight Plastics is able to recycle 6,000 tonnes of the 8,000 tonnes of PET plastic collected for
recycling in New Zealand each year, with the ability to expand as recycling volumes increase. The facility is also
expected to reduce demand for imported PET, which currently stands at about 20,000 tonnes each year and growing as PET
is more widely used in food trays to replace non-recyclable materials.
"Every PET bottle or container recycled at Flight is given a new life, saving the import of materials and reducing waste
to landfill," Flight Plastics chief executive Keith Smith said in comments prepared for the plant opening. "The
environmental benefits from managing our own plastic PET waste in New Zealand are obvious but there are huge economic
benefits too. Resource recovery is vital to New Zealand's economy."
The RPET containers made at the Flight factory are themselves recyclable so the company can continue to reprocess them.
"Research tells us that people will recycle more if they know it is not sent offshore," Smith said. "New Zealanders want
to see their recycling efforts arriving back on their supermarket shelves where we can all be part of a genuine circular
economy."
The Flight Plastics investment benefited from a $4 million grant from the government's Waste Minimisation Fund which
provides financial support to projects that reduce environmental harm and provide social, economic and cultural
benefits. Introduced by the National-led government in 2009, it is funded from a levy on waste disposed of at landfills.
More than $80 million has been awarded to more than 130 projects to date.
Environment Minister Nick Smith and Associate Minister Scott Simpson officially opened the facility, saying it was an
important part of the government's programme of building New Zealand's recycling infrastructure.
"As a country, we need to be thinking smarter about ways to reduce our waste, and this facility will provide a
fundamental change in the way plastic waste is managed," Simpson said.
(BusinessDesk)
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