Repeat Plastics A

PROJECT # 148/12

ustralia Pty Ltd

A project funded in partnership with:

Project Title:

Technical Capacity to Mechanically Recycle Packaging Film.

Final report date: November 10th 2014

Author: Mr. Stewart Norton

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Contents

Disclaimer 3

Confidentiality statement 3

Acknowledgements 4

Executive summary 5

Project risks & outcomes 6

Achievements 7

Materials diverted 8

Facility set-up 9

Processing capabilities 12

Turning waste into sustainable products 12

The outcome 15

Product up-take 16

Increasing our recycling rates 17

Project outcomes 17

Project methodology review 18

Milestone delivery review 18

Media 19

Lessons learned 20

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Disclaimer:

Although care has been taken in preparing the information contained in this report, theinformation is provided for general disclosure purposes only, and Repeat Plastics AustraliaPty Ltd does not, and cannot, provide any warranty, guarantee or promise express or impliedconcerning the content, completeness, accuracy, currency or otherwise of any individual itemof information provided through the report. The information in the report is provided on thebasis that all persons accessing the document take responsibility for assessing the relevanceand accuracy of its content, and Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd suggests that usersrequiring confirmation of any information should confirm the accuracy of information withRepeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd.

Confidentiality Statement

This document contains proprietary and confidential information. All data and informationcontained within is provided in reliance upon its consent not to use or disclose anyinformation contained herein except in the context of its business dealings with NationalPackaging Covenant Industry Association (NPCIA) and its state jurisdictional signatories.

The recipient of this document agrees to inform its present and future employees andpartners who view or have access to the document's content of its confidential nature.

The recipient agrees to instruct each employee that they must not disclose any informationconcerning this document to others except to the extent those matters are generally knownto, and are available for use by, the public. The recipient also agrees not to duplicate,distribute, or permit others to duplicate or distribute any material contained herein withoutthe express written consent of Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd.

Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd retains all title, ownership and intellectual property rights tothe material and trademarks contained herein, including all supporting documentation, files,marketing material, and multimedia.

BY ACCEPTANCE OF THIS DOCUMENT, THE RECIPIENT AGREES TO BE BOUNDBY THE AFOREMENTIONED STATEMENT.

This document is acknowledged as being available to the general public on the AustralianPackaging Covenant website.

Acknowledgments

Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd would like to acknowledge the following stakeholders fortheir support in such a wonderful project.

The Australian Packaging Covenant

The Queensland Government through the Department of Environment & HeritageProtection

Gold Coast City Council

The R & D team at Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd

This project is supported by the Australian Packaging Covenant and the QueenslandGovernment.

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www.replas.com.au

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Executive summary

Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd applied for funding assistance to set up and operate a stateof the art Queensland plastics recycling facility which will use post-consumer waste plastic &post-industrial waste plastic for the production of sustainable products. The initial operationwill involve the installation of a modular moulding machine which has the capacity to meetexisting market expectations of 600 tonnes pa of finished product in the first year, with aprojection of 1,200 tonnes in the second year and 1,800 tonnes in its third year subject toproduct uptake. The Replas facility is located at 21 Reichert Drive Molendinar 4214Queensland and complies with all state and local council regulations.

Replas in-confidence technology enables Replas to convert unviable resources through aprocess of value-adding. Their objectives in material supply is directly related to partneringwith MRF and away from home recycling operators involved in collection and sorting wasteplastic packaging materials, corporations looking for an effective product stewardshipprogram and their ability to demonstrate a true closed loop approach in the packagingsupply chain.

The establishment of a new Replas Queensland manufacturing facility will create a newdemand for waste plastic packaging materials and develop markets which are not currentlyin existence in Queensland. The project will also provide opportunities for many involved inthe recycling and collection of packaging materials and enable expansion in the recovery andrecycling of waste plastic packaging material.

The Replas Queensland project will initially offer and deliver a specially designed bollard thatis unique to the Queensland market. The initial production will commence with the recyclingof packaging material to produce the “Brolga Bollard” or the B4 vehicle barrier as classifiedby Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services (QPWS) currently supplied in hardwood timber.This is the most popular bollard in Queensland. It is used and specified by many of Replasexisting clients such as councils and property developers. The new bollard is a 200 mm x 100mm and has a chamfered top. The company’s market research indicates that the new Replasmore sustainable and low maintenance version of the existing hardwood bollard will have aninitial market estimate of 3,000 units per year in Queensland alone. Other states havealready started to order this new product. Each unit weighs approximately 13 kg comparedto the existing product 18kgs. As demand grows additional new products will be locallyproduced. Based on existing sales it is expected that the next product (another bollard) willbe in production early 2015.

The unique technology developed by Replas enables easy expansion due to its modular form.The expansion is by means of adding additional moulding machines (The preparation linealready has excess capacity).

Replas is not dependent on offshore markets. The Replas recycling process enables consumerpackaging waste not only to be collected and baled but value added by transforming theplastic waste into valuable products which are an alternative for timber, require lessmaintenance and are better able to withstand harsh environmental conditions.

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Project Risks & Outcomes.Location

One of the major risks a project like this is location.The period of time it took to find a suitable site wasin excess of 12 months.

Each council area that we searched had differentofferings in available existing buildings and theseagain were complicated by suitable industry zonetypes. Not all councils have the same industrialclassed wording for industry usage, some are zonedindustry 1, some are classed heavy industry and

there were also variations with different operating hours. With all in mind the search for theright location was very complicated covering most of SEQ.

Once a suitable location was found it then became a matter of does the selected buildinghave the right access to power? In our case we were lucky that we did find a right suitablebuilding, it was zoned industry 1 (Commercial) and allowed for 24/7 operation.

The project is located at 21 Reichert Drive Molendinar (Gold Coast) Queensland and coversan area of approx. 3,000sqm including hardstand area.

Power Supply

The selected building did have access to a suitabletransformer on site however the building was notconnected to the transformer.

Repeat Plastic undertook a major investment inexcess of $30K to upgrade and install the powerneeded to run the operation and complete the projectlocation aspect.

The outcome of this undertaking was that we had asuitable building located in the correct zoned council location, the right custom designedelectrical fit out and enough power for our needs. The building now has in excess of 800amps if needed. With this amount of power another risk was energy costs.

Energy Costs

With any major project energy costs play a vital role in costs and bottom line results. Theprojects energy needs were sent out through our Victorian head office for tender.

The results of this process provided a large reduction in costs as based on traditional hook upsupply and demand in Queensland and also had a flow on effect which by an increase in useon a national basis we were able to see a further reduction in our national usage rates andcharges for our facilities in Ballarat (Victoria) and R & D Centre Lilydale, (Victoria)

The outcome of this was substantial savings on standard supply and demand charges for theproject.

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Legal Compliance

The legal compliance issues for the project in Queensland required Replas to obtain anauthority to operate. This was a very time consuming & frustrating process. Under theQueensland Environmental Protection ACT if you manufacture in excess of 50 tons of plasticper year you require an ERA (Environmental Relevant Activity) permit. This is issued by theDEHP however, monitored and applied for through the local relevant authority. In our case itwas the Gold Coast City Council. This complicated process took 10 weeks to reach conclusionand if not for some help and advice from the GCCC may have taken longer.

The outcome was an authority to operate under guidelines as specified by the local authorityhowever this does not impact on the operations of the business.

Plant Set up & commissioning

The plant under the terms of the APC funding agreement was built and assembled at ourR & D centre in Victoria. Once each component was ready it underwent extensive testing&monitoring prior to being packaged & transported to the new facility in Queensland.

The outcome was a turn-key facility that was ready to run subject to any transportationissues. There were some small minor issues with lost programing during this period of set uphowever these were overcome on site and the total installation and commissioning processwas completed in 8 weeks.

The outcome is a fully operational plant as outlined in our project submissions.

Achievements

The following achievements have been reached in project 148/12

The successful design of speciality recycling equipment for use in recycling wasteplastic packaging materials

Meeting the target of a more energy efficient production line (30% power savingscompared to current manufacturing technology used)

The successful design of an end product that has market acceptance (Brolga Bollard)

The deployment of a turnkey waste plastic recycling facility to South East Queensland

The successful transformation of 50 tons waste plastic packaging materials intoBrolga Bollards.

The product tag “Made in Queensland”

The equipment tags “ Uniquely Australian, complete recycling process”

Uptake of our “Made in Queensland” product.

The ability to divert waste plastic packaging materials from Queensland landfills

The successful processing of 50 tons of waste plastic packaging materials

Project completion.

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Materials Diverted

In November 2013 the Coles Red cycle program was rolled out in South East Queensland.This involved the placement of waste plastic recycling stations in almost 110 Colessupermarkets from as far up as Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast, down to Miami on theGold Coast and out to Beaudesert and Ipswich in the lower and Western Brisbane corridors.The collection program covered two separate recyclable streams; these are termed front end(post-consumer recycling) and back-end (store based materials). Both waste streams aredelivered to the Replas Recycling and manufacturing operations in Queensland.

The back end waste materials are baled up and sent to Red Group Victoria for further actionwhile all front end materials are stored ready for processing and use by our Queenslandoperations. Since this program commenced in late 2013 to the writing of this report the databelow provides an indication of materials collected and delivered to the facility. We haveincluded other waste plastic packaging materials collected and recycled.

Back End

Front End

Other Material

Total

70

80

35

185

Total Tons

Tons

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Other major items recycled with Replas

Other recyclables collected included 71,000 pieces of plastic packaging used in the food &Grocery manufacturing industry. These items were clean production run packaging thateither had faults or discontinued use products. Previously these had been sent to landfill. Wesee a good opportunity to venture further into this market to supplement our raw materialrequirements.

Picture: Waste Plastic Packaging from- Botanical Food Company (Palmwoods QLD)

Facility set up

The Replas Recycling& Manufacturing facility commenced set up in September with the firstof 4 semi- trailers arriving with tested equipment. Our team of technical staff assisted in theinstallation of each and every component of the special equipment.

It was not long before we were ready to do a test run in October on the specially designedReplas soft and rigid lines.

Pictures below show the Replassoft and hard processing lineafter installation

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Pictures shows collected Colesmaterial ready for processing onReplas soft line

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Processing Capabilities

Replas designed and assembled to its own specifications a fully automated soft waste plasticprocessing line. A hard waste plastic line was also added with full integrated automatedfunctions between the two lines.

The selection of waste material to be processed is all controlled by a single control panelmaking easy use of the specially designed functions. (Images Restricted by IP).

The result was very impressive with over 50 tons of waste plastic packaging materialprocessed, ready to use for the production of not only our Brolga Bollard in Queensland butmost products in the Replas range. (Video available upon request – Restricted by IP)

Turning waste into sustainable produThe Replas project was based on our submissions tomaterials into a product – Brolga Bollard.

Replas designed, built and assembled its most modeover 25 years of experience. Replas has delivered an

The machine developed is world leading and producprocessed waste plastic packaging material processshow the specially designed Replas manufacturing m

Pictures shows collected Cole’smaterial after processing andready for re-use.

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ctsconvert waste plastic packaging

rn production machines ever, calling ond succeeded in this task.

es a product based on the use of theed in the facility. The following pictures

achine being installed.

Part of Replas moulder beinglocated into place

Replas moulder with safety cageready for robot installation

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Replas moulding machine fullyinstalled

Rigid plastic line pipework tostorage bags

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The outcome

A picture is better than a thousand words!

“Made in Queensland” using waste plastic packaging materials collected through theQueensland Red cycle program.

Replas Brolga Bollards ready tobe shipped to clients.

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Picture above – Taking out the timber

Redlands Regional Council

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Product uptake

The project has enabled Replas to present to a wide range of clients a product that is trulysustainable, cost effective and has a lifecycle that exceeds many traditional products.

Replas has a new product that is made from waste plastic packaging materialsmanufactured in Queensland but sold nationally.

Pictured left.

Mr Keith Atkins Toowoomba Regional Councilthe first to receive our Brolga Bollard.

Just some of the markets include

Contractors

Developers

Councils

Landscape designers

Fitness equipment

The product is now gaining momentum in the field of landscape designers and council designdepartments where designs and construction parameters specify the use of products madefrom recycled materials that are sustainable to the community and the environment.

Some such clients include:

Brisbane City Council

Redlands City Council

Toowoomba Regional Council

Sunshine Coast Regional Council

Cardno

Over 6,249 Brolga Bollards have now been used as a wood replacement product inAustralia. That’s 81,237 kilograms of waste plastic turned into a sustainable product.

Increasing our recycling and plant expansion

To increase our recycling rates more education may be needed in the area of what Replasterms “The Pull through Effect” the project needs more support in the area of understandingthat recycling is not sustainable unless product uptake increases, in this area plant expansionis dependant.

More work also needs to done from a legislative perspective through the Local and StateGovernment procurement policies. We still see many instances where traditional materialsare used such as timber or other products and that are not “Made in Queensland”. IfQueensland is to increase its recycling rates, maintain and create jobs and come up to thelevel of other states we need to act in this area.

Project Outcomes

The Replas project 148/12 has been a successful project and clearlyproves that the Australian Packaging Covenant has significantbenefit’s to industry, government and the community.

The Replas project is a first in Australia and perhaps in the world.The design, construction and assembly of a waste plastic packagingrecycling plant that uses a material that previously went to landfillin the manufacturing of a sustainable product.

It’s clear that through the Australian Packaging Covenant thismajor project would not have happened.

The project fully endorses the APC strategic plan priorities andtargets.

The project is now ongoing and completed.

Please note that standard PPEmust be used at all times andthe level of PPE does increasedepending on the facilities levelof machine operation. Thesemay include ear muffs, eyeprotection equipment, glovesetc.

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Finished Replas Brolga Bollards being removedfrom safety production cage

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Project Methodology Review

In reviewing the project, several aspects in the outcome and timing must be observed andnoted

Initial delays in signing contracts due to events beyond our control (Change ofGovernment.

The flow on effect in late 2012 leading into Christmas eventuated in a delay incomponent procurement.

The initial reduction in funding by the Queensland Government due to previousgovernment excess expenditure and state debt position.

Flow on from reduced funding by QLD government meant reduced APC fundingtotalling $150k less.

Several of the above actions especially in the reduced funding aspect did place additionalpressure on Replas finances and project methodology. The result was funds that could havebeen committed on external work had to be undertaken in house which dramaticallyincreased the time taken to complete the project.

The experience of this project has been of great benefit. Replas now has a proven productionline that will be the basis for all future production lines in our Australian operations. Thesoftware development has enabled better process control and monitoring. Our newadvances can now be incorporated in all future machinery. Replas has designed a turnkey,compact waste plastic recycling plant that is affordable in any country.

The successful completion of this project now offers Replas an opportunity to potentially lookat other global equipment export markets.

Milestone Delivery Review:

Project Milestones Outcome / Deliverable PlannedCompletion

Date

ActualCompletion

Date

Effectiveness /Comment

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6

Full production

Final Report

Full production Installation&Completion of processing 5otons consumer packaging waste

Final Report

30/06/14

30/06/14

31/10/14

03/11/14

Delay based on designand manufacturingand getting it right.

Completed

1 The date of the variation as stated within the executed Funding Agreement is to be placed here unless the milestone was subject to anagreed milestone variation.2 The definition of completed milestone is where the APC has notified the recipient that the milestone evidence has been approved

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Media

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Lessons Learned

The main issues experienced in delivering this project was time and the evaluation process indeveloping equipment fully able to deliver the outcomes required.

Replas has succeeded in processing a very complex range of materials.

The experience of this project has been of great benefit to all including Replas.We now have a proven designed turnkey waste plastic recycling plant that is affordable inany country.

Note from the project owners

Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd would like to acknowledge the support of the AustralianPackaging Covenant and the Queensland Government through the Department ofEnvironment & Heritage Protection for the support and assisted funding of this wonderfulproject.

The project has delivered one of the most advanced compact waste plastic recycling plants inthe world, capable of turning waste plastic into sustainable products.

Thank-you

Stewart Norton

Project ManagerRepeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd