Local recycler partners with national scheme

GT Recycling is an official partner of Big Bag Recovery. (Supplied)

A local recycling company has signed on with the federal government’s plastic bag recovery scheme as a processing partner.

Big Bag Recovery, Australia’s product stewardship scheme for the recovery of industrial plastic bags, announced the official partnership with family-owned and operated Geelong business GT Recycling this week.

Under the agreement, GT Recycling will process bags and sacks made from woven polypropylene and low-density polyethylene at its Moolap facility.

The company will process bags gathered locally and interstate, with the recycled resin pellets then used by other companies to manufacture local products.

GT Recycling business development manager Brett McLean said the company was proud to support “this vital national scheme”.

“Our shared values as family-owned businesses mean we’re both deeply invested in long-term environmental outcomes and community-driven innovation,” Mr McLean said.

In 2023, Big Bag Recovery announced it had diverted more than 5 million kilograms of plastic from landfill or burning since it began in 2015.

Two years later, the scheme is on track to recover 5.5 million kilograms of bulk bags each year.

Big Bag Recovery general manager Helena Tierney said the partnership with GT Recycling represented “a significant step forward for our national recycling efforts”.

“Our partnership with GT Recycling expands local processing capacity and creates new opportunities for Australian manufacturers to use domestically recycled polypropylene pellets and actively contribute to a thriving circular economy,” Ms Tierney said.