The document provides a final report on a project to establish a mechanical recycling facility in Queensland for packaging film. Key points: - The facility has been set up to process 600 tonnes of recycled packaging per year initially, with projections to process 1,200 and 1,800 tonnes in subsequent years. - The first product to be manufactured is a "Brolga Bollard" for the Queensland market, with an initial estimated demand of 3,000 units per year. - Risks addressed in the project included finding a suitable facility location, upgrading the power supply, managing energy costs, and obtaining necessary permits. - The modular design of the facility allows for expansion by adding additional molding

1. PROJECT # 148/12
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
Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd

2. 2
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

3. 3
Disclaimer:
Although care has been taken in preparing the information contained in this report, the
information is provided for general disclosure purposes only, and Repeat Plastics Australia
Pty Ltd does not, and cannot, provide any warranty, guarantee or promise express or implied
concerning the content, completeness, accuracy, currency or otherwise of any individual item
of information provided through the report. The information in the report is provided on the
basis that all persons accessing the document take responsibility for assessing the relevance
and accuracy of its content, and Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd suggests that users
requiring confirmation of any information should confirm the accuracy of information with
Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd.
Confidentiality Statement
This document contains proprietary and confidential information. All data and information
contained within is provided in reliance upon its consent not to use or disclose any
information contained herein except in the context of its business dealings with National
Packaging Covenant Industry Association (NPCIA) and its state jurisdictional signatories.
The recipient of this document agrees to inform its present and future employees and
partners 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 information
concerning this document to others except to the extent those matters are generally known
to, 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 without
the express written consent of Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd.
Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd retains all title, ownership and intellectual property rights to
the material and trademarks contained herein, including all supporting documentation, files,
marketing material, and multimedia.
BY ACCEPTANCE OF THIS DOCUMENT, THE RECIPIENT AGREES TO BE BOUND
BY THE AFOREMENTIONED STATEMENT.
This document is acknowledged as being available to the general public on the Australian
Packaging Covenant website.

4. 4
Acknowledgments
Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd would like to acknowledge the following stakeholders for
their support in such a wonderful project.
 The Australian Packaging Covenant
 The Queensland Government through the Department of Environment & Heritage
Protection
 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 Queensland
Government.
www.replas.com.au

5. 5
Executive summary
Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd applied for funding assistance to set up and operate a state
of 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 operation
will involve the installation of a modular moulding machine which has the capacity to meet
existing market expectations of 600 tonnes pa of finished product in the first year, with a
projection of 1,200 tonnes in the second year and 1,800 tonnes in its third year subject to
product uptake. The Replas facility is located at 21 Reichert Drive Molendinar 4214
Queensland and complies with all state and local council regulations.
Replas in-confidence technology enables Replas to convert unviable resources through a
process of value-adding. Their objectives in material supply is directly related to partnering
with MRF and away from home recycling operators involved in collection and sorting waste
plastic packaging materials, corporations looking for an effective product stewardship
program and their ability to demonstrate a true closed loop approach in the packaging
supply chain.
The establishment of a new Replas Queensland manufacturing facility will create a new
demand for waste plastic packaging materials and develop markets which are not currently
in existence in Queensland. The project will also provide opportunities for many involved in
the recycling and collection of packaging materials and enable expansion in the recovery and
recycling of waste plastic packaging material.
The Replas Queensland project will initially offer and deliver a specially designed bollard that
is unique to the Queensland market. The initial production will commence with the recycling
of packaging material to produce the “Brolga Bollard” or the B4 vehicle barrier as classified
by 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 Replas
existing clients such as councils and property developers. The new bollard is a 200 mm x 100
mm and has a chamfered top. The company’s market research indicates that the new Replas
more sustainable and low maintenance version of the existing hardwood bollard will have an
initial market estimate of 3,000 units per year in Queensland alone. Other states have
already started to order this new product. Each unit weighs approximately 13 kg compared
to the existing product 18kgs. As demand grows additional new products will be locally
produced. Based on existing sales it is expected that the next product (another bollard) will
be 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 line
already has excess capacity).
Replas is not dependent on offshore markets. The Replas recycling process enables consumer
packaging waste not only to be collected and baled but value added by transforming the
plastic waste into valuable products which are an alternative for timber, require less
maintenance and are better able to withstand harsh environmental conditions.

6. 6
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 was
in excess of 12 months.
Each council area that we searched had different
offerings in available existing buildings and these
again were complicated by suitable industry zone
types. Not all councils have the same industrial
classed wording for industry usage, some are zoned
industry 1, some are classed heavy industry and
there were also variations with different operating hours. With all in mind the search for the
right location was very complicated covering most of SEQ.
Once a suitable location was found it then became a matter of does the selected building
have the right access to power? In our case we were lucky that we did find a right suitable
building, 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 covers
an area of approx. 3,000sqm including hardstand area.
Power Supply
The selected building did have access to a suitable
transformer on site however the building was not
connected to the transformer.
Repeat Plastic undertook a major investment in
excess of $30K to upgrade and install the power
needed to run the operation and complete the project
location aspect.
The outcome of this undertaking was that we had a
suitable building located in the correct zoned council location, the right custom designed
electrical fit out and enough power for our needs. The building now has in excess of 800
amps 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. The
projects 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 up
supply and demand in Queensland and also had a flow on effect which by an increase in use
on a national basis we were able to see a further reduction in our national usage rates and
charges 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 the
project.

7. 7
Legal Compliance
The legal compliance issues for the project in Queensland required Replas to obtain an
authority to operate. This was a very time consuming & frustrating process. Under the
Queensland Environmental Protection ACT if you manufacture in excess of 50 tons of plastic
per year you require an ERA (Environmental Relevant Activity) permit. This is issued by the
DEHP however, monitored and applied for through the local relevant authority. In our case it
was the Gold Coast City Council. This complicated process took 10 weeks to reach conclusion
and 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 authority
however 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 our
R & 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 transportation
issues. There were some small minor issues with lost programing during this period of set up
however these were overcome on site and the total installation and commissioning process
was 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 waste
plastic packaging materials
 Meeting the target of a more energy efficient production line (30% power savings
compared 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 into
Brolga 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.

8. 8
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 Coles
supermarkets from as far up as Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast, down to Miami on the
Gold 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 are
delivered 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 action
while all front end materials are stored ready for processing and use by our Queensland
operations. Since this program commenced in late 2013 to the writing of this report the data
below provides an indication of materials collected and delivered to the facility. We have
included other waste plastic packaging materials collected and recycled.
Back End
Front End
Other Material
Total
70
80
35
185
Total Tons
Tons

9. 9
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 that
either had faults or discontinued use products. Previously these had been sent to landfill. We
see a good opportunity to venture further into this market to supplement our raw material
requirements.
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 first
of 4 semi- trailers arriving with tested equipment. Our team of technical staff assisted in the
installation 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 designed
Replas soft and rigid lines.

10. 10
Pictures below show the Replas
soft and hard processing line
after installation

11. 11
Pictures shows collected Coles
material ready for processing on
Replas soft line

12. 12
Processing Capabilities
Replas designed and assembled to its own specifications a fully automated soft waste plastic
processing line. A hard waste plastic line was also added with full integrated automated
functions between the two lines.
The selection of waste material to be processed is all controlled by a single control panel
making easy use of the specially designed functions. (Images Restricted by IP).
The result was very impressive with over 50 tons of waste plastic packaging material
processed, ready to use for the production of not only our Brolga Bollard in Queensland but
most products in the Replas range. (Video available upon request – Restricted by IP)
Turning waste into sustainable products
The Replas project was based on our submissions to convert waste plastic packaging
materials into a product – Brolga Bollard.
Replas designed, built and assembled its most modern production machines ever, calling on
over 25 years of experience. Replas has delivered and succeeded in this task.
The machine developed is world leading and produces a product based on the use of the
processed waste plastic packaging material processed in the facility. The following pictures
show the specially designed Replas manufacturing machine being installed.
Pictures shows collected Cole’s
material after processing and
ready for re-use.

13. 13
Part of Replas moulder being
located into place
Replas moulder with safety cage
ready for robot installation

14. 14
Replas moulding machine fully
installed
Rigid plastic line pipework to
storage bags

15. 15
The outcome
A picture is better than a thousand words!
“Made in Queensland” using waste plastic packaging materials collected through the
Queensland Red cycle program.
Picture above – Taking out the timber
Redlands Regional Council
Replas Brolga Bollards ready to
be shipped to clients.

16. 16
Product uptake
The project has enabled Replas to present to a wide range of clients a product that is truly
sustainable, cost effective and has a lifecycle that exceeds many traditional products.
Replas has a new product that is made from waste plastic packaging materials
manufactured in Queensland but sold nationally.
Pictured left.
Mr Keith Atkins Toowoomba Regional Council
the 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 design
departments where designs and construction parameters specify the use of products made
from 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 in
Australia. That’s 81,237 kilograms of waste plastic turned into a sustainable product.

17. 17
Increasing our recycling and plant expansion
To increase our recycling rates more education may be needed in the area of what Replas
terms “The Pull through Effect” the project needs more support in the area of understanding
that recycling is not sustainable unless product uptake increases, in this area plant expansion
is dependant.
More work also needs to done from a legislative perspective through the Local and State
Government procurement policies. We still see many instances where traditional materials
are used such as timber or other products and that are not “Made in Queensland”. If
Queensland is to increase its recycling rates, maintain and create jobs and come up to the
level of other states we need to act in this area.
Project Outcomes
The Replas project 148/12 has been a successful project and clearly
proves that the Australian Packaging Covenant has significant
benefit’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 packaging
recycling plant that uses a material that previously went to landfill
in the manufacturing of a sustainable product.
It’s clear that through the Australian Packaging Covenant this
major project would not have happened.
The project fully endorses the APC strategic plan priorities and
targets.
The project is now ongoing and completed.
Please note that standard PPE
must be used at all times and
the level of PPE does increase
depending on the facilities level
of machine operation. These
may include ear muffs, eye
protection equipment, gloves
etc.
.Finished Replas Brolga Bollards being removed
from safety production cage

18. 18
Project Methodology Review
In reviewing the project, several aspects in the outcome and timing must be observed and
noted
 Initial delays in signing contracts due to events beyond our control (Change of
Government.
 The flow on effect in late 2012 leading into Christmas eventuated in a delay in
component procurement.
 The initial reduction in funding by the Queensland Government due to previous
government excess expenditure and state debt position.
 Flow on from reduced funding by QLD government meant reduced APC funding
totalling $150k less.
Several of the above actions especially in the reduced funding aspect did place additional
pressure on Replas finances and project methodology. The result was funds that could have
been committed on external work had to be undertaken in house which dramatically
increased the time taken to complete the project.
The experience of this project has been of great benefit. Replas now has a proven production
line that will be the basis for all future production lines in our Australian operations. The
software development has enabled better process control and monitoring. Our new
advances 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 look
at other global equipment export markets.
Milestone Delivery Review:
Project Milestones Outcome / Deliverable Planned
Completion
Date
Actual
Completion
Date
Effectiveness /
Comment
5
6
Full production
Final Report
Full production Installation&
Completion of processing 5o
tons consumer packaging waste
Final Report
30/06/14
30/06/14
31/10/14
03/11/14
Delay based on design
and manufacturing
and 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 an
agreed milestone variation.
2
The definition of completed milestone is where the APC has notified the recipient that the milestone evidence has been approved

19. 19
Media

20. 20
Lessons Learned
The main issues experienced in delivering this project was time and the evaluation process in
developing 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 in
any country.
Note from the project owners
Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd would like to acknowledge the support of the Australian
Packaging Covenant and the Queensland Government through the Department of
Environment & Heritage Protection for the support and assisted funding of this wonderful
project.
The project has delivered one of the most advanced compact waste plastic recycling plants in
the world, capable of turning waste plastic into sustainable products.
Thank-you
Stewart Norton
Project Manager
Repeat Plastics Australia Pty Ltd