DMD Plastic Recycling

At Halve Waste, we want to spotlight and support individuals, groups and businesses that are “doing good” and helping us to reach our target of reducing our waste.

The spotlight is on DMD Plastic Recycling located in North Albury. The business has been operating since 2014 and has been important in diverting plastic materials from the Albury landfill. Deanne, Michael and Jim were happy to talk to Halve Waste about their business and what the local community can do to help.

What type of plastic do you recycle?

DMD Plastic Recycling accepts hard plastic waste from businesses. We only cater for commercial amounts of hard plastic as most household items go into the council provided kerbside recycling bins. We accept the following types of plastics:

Polypropylene (PP)
Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE)
High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE)
Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS)
Polethylene Terephthalate (PET)

Items such as plastic bumper bars, pallets and broken kerbside bins can be processed here and recycled into new products, rather than going to landfill.

What do you do with the plastic waste that comes to your site?

The plastics are shredded, granulated and bagged – ready for transportation to manufacturing facilities. Once there, they get made into new items such as biscuit trays. About 95% of the plastics that come to our site for processing stay in Australia and are used largely for manufacturing purposes.

How has DMD Plastic Recycling helped reduce waste to our local landfill?

Previously, many companies had been taking their plastic waste to the landfill to get buried, as there were minimal plastic recycling options for businesses. Since we opened, a lot of regional companies have turned to us for a local waste solution. In the last five years one company alone has brought us hundreds of tonnes of hard plastic which has been recycled – which is a much better option for our environment.

As a recycler, what is your biggest issue and what can the local community do to help?

We have had a large influx of plastic material come to our facility over the past year, mainly due to many businesses having limited hard plastic recycling options. One of the problems we have is that the demand for recycled plastics in Australia is low. You can help by purchasing items that are made out of recycled plastic as it creates a demand within Australia.

Mixed plastic bales are a huge problem for us as different types of hard plastic cannot be processed together. We therefore ask businesses to sort their plastics prior to coming here. If you are a business looking for hard plastic recycling options or you need more information, feel free to contact us at [email protected].