Visy is now operating Australia’s most energy-efficient glass furnace at its recycling and re-manufacturing facility in Sydney.
The AUD 150 million state-of-the-art investment in Penrith—which was officially opened July 18 by New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and by Anthony Pratt, Chairman of Visy—is the country’s first oxygen-only fueled furnace using less than half the energy than the one it replaced.
“That’s the equivalent of saving enough energy to heat over 32,000 Sydney homes every year,” said Pratt.
The Penrith site is the only glass bottle and jar manufacturing factory in New South Wales. It produces over 800 million glass containers every year in support of Australia’s world class food and beverage companies like Vegemite, Cottee’s Jam, Toohey’s New and Bundaberg Ginger Beer.
The facility will also use advanced recycled cullet pre-heating technology to significantly increase the use of recycled glass in Australia’s glass bottle manufacturing sector. “This new technology is part of our program to make glass containers with an average 70 per cent recycled content across Australia and New Zealand,” Pratt continued. The factory takes recycled glass from household recycle bins and the Return and Earn container deposit scheme to make the new bottles and jars.
“At Visy, we’re not just manufacturers – we’re in the landfill avoidance business because recycling is an important weapon against climate change,” said Pratt. “We’re investing in low energy technology, as well as high paying, green collar jobs, and boosting Australia’s manufacturing capability.”
New South Wales Premier, Chris Minns, welcomed the investment in Western Sydney manufacturing. “We welcome Visy’s vote of confidence in Western Sydney and NSW. The bottles and jars made here will end up in the hands of millions of Aussies each year” said Minns.
The investment is part of Pratt’s 2021 commitment to invest AUD 2 billion over the ensuing decade to reduce landfill, help fight climate change while creating and sustaining thousands of green collar Australian manufacturing jobs.