Astron’s application for the top tier membership was accepted by ACOR, the national peak body for the recycling and resource recovery industry, at its Board meeting last month in Sydney.

Astron is the sustainability division of Pact Group, Australasia’s largest and most diverse rigid packaging, materials handling and pooling solution provider.

Astron is the largest recycler of post-industrial plastic in the Southern Hemisphere. Astron supplies recycled resin to the broader Pact Group for inclusion into a broad range of packaging including food-grade applications such as milk bottles and meat trays, non-food grade applications such as household and personal care products and industrial products such as freeway noise walls, wheelie bins, underground cable covers, cubes, drums, pails, trays, jerrycans, crates and communication pits.

“ACOR is serious about providing innovative solutions to grow Australia’s domestic recycling and reuse industry, and that’s why it’s exciting to welcome Astron as our 8th Platinum Member,” Peter Tamblyn, ACOR’s President, said.

“Astron’s innovation and leadership in plastic resin recycling and manufacturing is a perfect fit for ACOR. We are committed to increasing the use of recycled content in the manufacture of new products, and so is Astron,” Tamblyn said.
With manufacturing facilities in Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, and a team of more than 350 employees, Astron Sustainability has been widely recognised by Governments and stakeholders as a major contributor the circular economy.

In FY19, Astron received co-funding grants from various jurisdictions to accelerate investment in sustainable plastic recycling projects. This included co-funding support from the Queensland Government to expand operations in Wacol (QLD) with new infrastructure to enable the recycling of post-industrial LDPE soft-film.

The NSW Government awarded a co-funding grant to Astron to add specialised sorting equipment into its existing Ingleburn (NSW) plastics recycling facility. Sustainability Victoria recently supported a similar project for Astron Cheltenham (VIC) operations.

Recycling is now a $15 billion industry that employs approximately 50,000 Australians and has the potential to generate further environmental and economic benefits for our society.

“The need for partnership and collaboration is crucial to that, and that’s why it’s good to be part of the ACOR fold,” Andrew Smith, General Manager of Astron, said.

“It’s a message to our stakeholders – customers, government, supply chain partners and consumers that we are strong believers in recycled content manufacturing here in Australia and want to work with all of them to achieve the best results in this growing area.

We know our customers are increasingly looking to include locally sourced, post-consumer resin in food-grade packaging and we are proud to be rapidly expanding our capacity. It is an exciting time to be involved in this industry” Smith said.