Throughout the pandemic, Australia's recycling crisis has continued, but a Ballarat-led effort may have found an innovative use for old plastic.
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Using soft plastics collected through supermarkets - bread bags, for example - Ballarat's Replas has come up with a way to process granules to create aggregate for concrete.
Test pours in Victorian cities in September have shown promising results, and if scaled up appropriately, the technology has the potential to help minimise the amount of recyclable plastic waste heading to landfill by thousands of tonnes.
One issue in broader pushes for a more circular economy is making waste into a valuable resource - Replas is one company which focuses on creating useful products out of recycled plastic, such as park benches and bollards, which are then sold to councils across the country.
With federal export bans placed on recyclable waste, the challenge is now to find uses and create a market for the material - in last week's federal budget, another $250 million was committed to establishing recycling infrastructure, and the state government made creating a circular economy a priority earlier this year.
The Replas Polyrok project is a collaboration with RMIT using the REDcycle Program, creating "recycled plastic-geopolymer concrete" - the website explains it "efficiently and effectively replacing conventional mineral aggregate while diverting plastic from landfill" by up to 40 per cent, and currently meets Australian standards.
The website boasts the end product is three times lighter than mineral aggregate, which creates transport and construction savings, and features enhanced durability.
"If each council in Australia committed to just one kilometre of footpath (with Polyrok), 500 tonnes of soft plastic material would permanently become part of the communities' walkways," Replas states.
Replas joint managing director Mark Jacobsen said in a statement the research was exciting, particularly for regional areas.
"As part of the government's economic recovery strategy, boosting large scale production through collaboration is a vital component, and products containing Polyrok have the potential to provide jobs, investment, and regional expansion at this critical time to rebuild the economy," he said.
"Our continued collaboration with RMIT brings together the brightest minds for the research and development of sustainable products.
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"Together we are developing ground-breaking technology to ensure sustainable products are at the forefront of major government and corporate development projects across the country."
On Saturday, a small electrical fire broke out at the Elsworth Street facility in Canadian, but no one was injured and Replas representatives said it was brought under control quickly by FRV and CFA crews.
"The Replas way is to always learn from mistakes and we will be implementing better practices around any potential risk in future," Mr Jacobsen said.
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