Australia’s leading recycling company Visy has unveiled a major $50 million upgrade to its glass recycling factory in Laverton, Melbourne, raising its capacity to up to 200,000 tonnes of glass each year.
The Laverton plant is crucial in Visy’s goal to manufacture new glass bottles and jars made with an average of 70 per cent recycled content. A glass container made with recycled content requires up to 30 per cent less energy than an original container.
To keep more glass in the circular economy, the plant will install 20 advanced cameras to sort glass down to three millimetres in size.
In 2021, Visy chairman Anthony Pratt committed to spending $2 billion on reducing landfills, cutting emissions, and creating manufacturing jobs for Aussies. The upgrade of the Laverton plant was part of this commitment.
“We’re actually in the landfill avoidance because recycling and remanufacturing are important weapons against climate change,” said Pratt.
Using recycled content in glass manufacturing can help lower greenhouse gas emissions, he added.
