“World first” waste recycling facility to open in Queensland

Pinkenba, Queensland, will soon be home to a $95 million mega, high-tech recycling facility that was claimed to be the first of its kind in the world.

Scheduled to be operational from late November 2023, the facility is equipped to process up to 475 tonnes of material an hour, and is the largest plant by volume in the world under one roof, according to Rino Recycling.  

“This plant has scale, capacity and efficiency – it can recycle more than 1.5 million tonnes of waste with 97 per cent recovery annually whilst producing high quality products such as aggregates, sand, and road bases to the equivalent standard of quarried material but with significant environmental benefits,” said Rino Recycling General Manager, Dan Blaser.

“In under 20 minutes, a truck can go from offloading construction waste and leave with a new load of high-quality, recycled products ready for the job site. It is a green, circular economy in action.”

He added the facility is critical to cater for new projects and lead the circular economy change ahead of the infrastructure and construction boom driven by the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.

“This puts in place the infrastructure for developers and all levels of government to adopt a ‘recycled first’ policy when it comes to construction and waste management,” Blaser said.

Based on an independent report, it is estimated that the new recycling facility will help reduce carbon emissions by 55,000 tonnes per year – the equivalent of 909,000 trees planted or removing 12,000 cars from the road annually.

Rino Recycling’s Director, Todd Pepper, said it could help Queensland lift its recycling rate from 68 per cent to 75 per cent, by recovering 97 per cent of the material fed into the plant.

“We are helping decarbonise through recycling waste and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the number of truck movements on the road,” Pepper said.

“The new facility is 13km from the CBD, so trucks have less distance to travel, and we are replacing the need to have to go to landfill sites west of the city, like Swanbank in Ipswich.”

The plant has an acre of rooftop solar panels for energy efficiency and recycles 35,000 litres of water every hour, making it “water neutral”.

The Rino Recycling plant is Green Star Certified which provides for all levels of Government and the broader business community to meet their environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) objectives, especially commitments for the 2032 Olympics.