Every year, Australians throw away hundreds of thousands of tonnes of soft plastics. Lightweight, contaminated, and difficult to recycle, most end up in landfill — or, worse, the natural environment. Sydney is projected to run out of landfill space by 2030, underscoring the urgency of change.
At Kundle Kundle on the NSW Mid North Coast, that change is beginning to take shape. Here, chip packets and bread bags can be shredded, sorted and reborn as pellets in less than an hour.
“Big investment, small beginnings – and the start of something massive for Australia,” says iQRenew CEO Danny Gallagher.
Standing before rows of conveyor belts and high-vis workers, Gallagher announced the company’s $9.1 million in joint NSW and Commonwealth government funding to expand its recycling plant – a project that promises to transform how the country tackles one of its most stubborn waste streams.
A facility with teeth
The site, once used for manufacturing train bodies, now houses one of Australia’s most advanced soft plastics facilities. Known as the SPEC plant (Soft Plastic Engineered Commodity), it can already process 14,000 tonnes of household plastics a year. With the new funding, capacity will rise to 24,000 tonnes – triple the volume RedCycle once handled nationally before its collapse in 2022.
“This represents over five years of trials, innovations, and significant investment,” Gallagher said. “For years we’ve heard the lack of infrastructure was the barrier. Well, that’s no longer the case.”
The process is both technical and startlingly quick. Plastics are shredded, screened for contaminants, and passed under optics that can distinguish a bread bag from a chip packet in a split second. Sorted into clean polymer streams, they are pelletised ready to be used again.
But as Gallagher and others stressed, infrastructure is only half the equation. Recycling only works if governments, businesses and communities buy the recycled products.
Image: iQRenew
A regional win
For Dr Madeleine Lawler, Director of Regional Development Australia Mid North Coast, the upgrade is more than an environmental milestone – it’s a regional economic one.
“We are really thrilled for iQRenew and Taree to be part of the solution,” Lawler said. “This facility expands capacity to 23,000 tonnes per annum, going some way to closing the gap on the 800,000 tonnes of virgin soft plastics placed on the market each year in Australia. And it means manufacturing is happening right here on site – that’s good news for Taree, and for regional jobs.”
The project will support up to 15 construction roles and 10 permanent jobs. But as iQRenew employee Daniel Pritchard pointed out, the potential is much larger.
“When the last big employer left, the town lost apprenticeships, traineeships, and energy,” said Pritchard, who grew up nearby. “Now, with Danny and the team building this, it feels like something’s coming back. If they can get the rest of the sheds set up, it’ll be incredible – a real hub for recycling and for the community.”
Industry steps up
The Kundle Kundle plant is part of a broader push by Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia (SPSA), a national scheme working to create a circular economy for packaging.
“This is a six-year overnight success story,” said SPSA co-CEO Barry Cosier. “What you’re seeing here is waste transformed into a resource. But it will only succeed if there’s strong offtake – if governments and businesses actually buy the products made from this recycled content.”
On a nearby table, that offtake is already visible: garbage bags made entirely from recycled film, shopping baskets, insulation, bollards and, perhaps most strikingly, pavers. “If you can do a paver out of soft plastics, anything is possible,” Cosier said.
Alex Geddes, Executive Director, Programs & Innovation at the NSW Environmental Protection Authority, underlined the stakes. “We know 890,000 tonnes of plastic waste are generated in NSW each year, and only 14 per cent is recycled. That has to change. Facilities like this are critical, but so is market demand. No one wants to see a repeat of RedCycle – we need robust systems that work end-to-end.”
From plastic bags to brick pavers
One hundred metres from iQRenew’s main shed, that market is being created. Pelagic.Earth, a start-up founded by industrial designer Philippa Abbott, has co-located at the site to turn recycled resin into new-generation grass (pictured above) and brick pavers.
“These are stronger than concrete, vehicle-grade, and designed to Australian standards,” Abbott explained. “They sequester carbon, reduce stormwater runoff, and give councils and developers a sustainable option.”
The decision to set up in Taree was strategic. “Our feedstock travels 100 m from iQRenew,” Abbott said. “That means almost zero transport emissions or costs. It’s a model of localisation – proof that regional hubs can capture supply chains and deliver national impact.”
Pelagic.Earth’s pavers debuted at Milan Design Week earlier this year and have already attracted interest from councils, developers and international partners. “This isn’t a recycled plastic bag used once more,” Abbott stressed. “It’s a durable product that stays out of the environment for decades. That’s what we need in a crisis like this.”
Beyond Taree
While the Kundle Kundle upgrade won’t solve Australia’s plastics problem alone, it marks a turning point. For the first time, large-scale infrastructure exists to handle the soft plastics that households generate daily.
And with iQRenew’s broader vision for a circular economy hub – incorporating food and garden waste, textiles, paper and glass alongside plastics – the potential extends far beyond packaging. Integrated with a direct rail link, the site could process more than 200,000 tonnes of waste annually, slashing landfill costs for councils and creating hundreds of regional jobs.
For now, though, the focus is on ensuring the $9.1 million investment pays dividends: plastics recycled at scale, markets developed, and a community proud of its role in leading change.
A model for the nation?
As visitors toured the plant, watching shredded chip packets reborn as uniform resin pellets, Gallagher reflected on the long road ahead.
“Building a facility is only half the equation,” he said. “The more products that are made and purchased with recycled content, the more we can collect and process. Circular procurement is key.”
For Lawler, the stakes are even higher. “This is not just about one plant,” she said. “It’s about proving that regional towns can be at the heart of Australia’s circular economy. Taree is showing the way.”
Pritchard, the local employee (pictured above), put it more simply. “It’ll change the area,” he said. “Jobs, training, pride – all of it. And if we can do that while fixing the plastic problem, why wouldn’t we?”
And Gallagher left no doubt about the choice ahead. Australia can keep burying plastics until the landfills run out – or it can follow Taree’s lead.
Article, images and video: Liz Ginis, Communications & Marketing Manager, RDA Sydney
Main image: iQRenew
