Every Australian generates an average of 101 kilograms of plastic waste per year, including 59 kilograms of single-use plastic waste. Consequently, much of this plastic is hard to recycle so often ends up in landfill. Advanced recycling technologies could turn problematic plastic waste destined for landfill into valuable resources to tackle this issue. It is suitable for flexible or soft ‘scrunchable’ plastics used for food packaging, such as food pouches and chocolate wrappers. These types of plastics may be contaminated with food or mixed with other materials so can't currently be recycled.

Feedstock, molecular and chemical recycling are other terms for advanced recycling. It can recycle mixed, multi-layer, contaminated and flexible plastics back into plastic or other valuable products. The process works by breaking down plastic waste intoitschemical building blocks. A range of thermal or biological processes can then turn the building blocks back into plastics. Creating fuel is another use that reduces our need for fossil fuel sources.

This report involved extensive industry engagement to deliver a key report to describe advanced recycling technologies and their application and relevance to Australia. It describes the key factors to enable adoption and scale-up of these technologies. Dr Sarah King was project manager and lead author on this report