Geelong company Rtec unveils innovative plastic recycling tech
World-first soft plastic recycling technology has been unveiled by a Geelong research company. Check out why the invention is “groundbreaking” and could solve a national crisis.
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A Geelong company could have the solution to Australia’s plastic waste crisis after the collapse of a popular supermarket recycling scheme.
REDcycle suspended its Coles and Woolworths recycling programs last week after it was revealed the company was stockpiling hundreds of millions of bags of plastic waste in warehouses.
Dr William Ritchie, founder of Geelong company Rtec, said he had developed “world-first technology” to recycle soft plastics in a single step.
Rtec started testing on Wednesday and Dr Ritchie said the company had the potential to fill the gap left by REDcycle.
He said soft plastics could be placed into Rtec’s machine to be melted down into a granule that could be used to make a wide variety of products.
Polymers and waste tested included woven bags, films, wraps, packaging, containers, extruded products, microfibre cloth and string/twine.
“We’d like to work with whoever we need to work with to get samples,” Dr Ritchie said.
“We need to get samples to run a trial process.
“If we can trial some of it in our machine, it’ll let us know fairly quickly if it’s suitable and can be done.
“The initiative at supermarkets and REDcycle was fantastic but it’s just a shame it’s ended this way.”
Sustainability Victoria data, updated in September 2022, revealed there was 15.86m tonnes of waste generated in Victoria 2019-20 from all sectors including municipal, commercial, industrial and construction – “a record amount”.
The City of Greater Geelong’s waste and resource recovery strategy 2020-2030 revealed 27,000 tonnes of recyclables were collected by council’s kerbside service from July 2018 to June 2019.
Dr Ritchie said there were many manufacturing applications for his technology, including injection moulding, bead/granule production, form moulding, and extrusion.
He said the new invention would mean plastic didn’t go to landfill.
“It means it’s hopefully not going out and polluting our earth,” Dr Ritchie said.
“It means it’s made into a commodity and used again, given a purpose.
“I don’t like seeing things go to waste, or seeing them go to the environment.
“I don’t like seeing our natural world not only disappear, but everywhere you look, there being signs of human activity.
“Our mark on the planet will be here for a long, long time, and I don’t think it should be made to be a bad one.”
Dr Ritchie said it was a shame how much of household recycling ended up in landfill.
He said if the company’s invention could repurpose even 10 per cent of that, he would consider it a major accomplishment.
“If we can get this up and running – we’re still in trials at the moment – but if all goes well, we want to commercialise,” he said.
“It’s not a solution for everything but even if it’s part of it, we’ve gained some ground.”
For more information visit ritchietechnology.com.au/
Originally published as Geelong company Rtec unveils innovative plastic recycling tech
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