ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - An Australian recycling company that exports baled PET to China as a cotton substitute is looking to expand into the North American market. Adelaide-based Statewide Recycling Pty. Ltd. has opened a new A$2.2 million (US$1.56 million) recycling facility in Adelaide, where it compresses post-consumer PET, high density polyethylene, aluminum and liquid paperboard.
The company's manager, Charlie Woolford, said the plant will compress 4.4 million pounds of PET this year, the majority of which will be exported to China for use in the manufacture of clothing.
The company exports aluminum scrap to North America and also wants to build a waste PET market there, he said.
Post-consumer PET bales are ``virtually a commodity'' and Statewide Recycling will export to any markets where it can achieve a ``reasonable, stable'' price, Woolford said.
The company also will export about 1.1 million pounds of HDPE to Hong Kong this year.
The biggest cost of recycling is handling. He noted that the company's new bulk systems plant has improved productivity and efficiency; only three people are needed to run the plant.
Woolford said Statewide Recycling has a collection network of 120 sites throughout South Australia and also buys containers collected in other Australian states.