By Josh Evans, Asset Strategy Manager, ARRC Gold Coast

The economics are shifting

For decades, the case against remanufacturing plastic in Australia rested on one stubborn fact: imported virgin resin was cheap, plentiful and reliable. Today, only the price advantage remains.

Global geopolitical instability and supply chain disruption are changing the arithmetic. Trade routes are exposed to shocks half a world away, and the certainty that once underpinned our import, consume and dispose model is eroding. For a country willing to build sovereign capability in plastics remanufacturing, there is now a genuine opportunity.

Australia has the capability to recycle plastic at scale, with established collection and sorting facilities. What has been missing is the market demand for recycled plastics, which will drive further investment in plastics recycling and remanufacturing facilities.

The market gap is the problem

That gap is real and worth naming: locally recycled plastic still costs more than imported alternatives. Industry survey data, undertaken by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water in 2025, puts utilisation of Australia’s recycling infrastructure at around 53 per cent. Forecasts suggest utilisation could fall to 32 per cent by 2030 if this market failure is not addressed.

Without certainty, recyclers risk exiting the market and new facilities may not be built. Rebuilding this industry and expertise would be slow and expensive.

Certainty can unlock investment

But this is a market design problem with a solution. The material is there: Australia has widespread recycling collection services and sends about 2.7 million tonnes of plastic to landfill each year, including one million tonnes of packaging (ACOR, 2025). The sorting capacity is also there, thanks to significant investment in Materials Recovery Facilities. Additional investment in plastic remanufacturing facilities will follow once demand for recycled plastic increases; what is missing is market certainty.

ARRC Gold Coast supports industry calls for Government to create market certainty through an extended producer responsibility scheme including mandated Australian recycled content requirements and stronger product design specifications. Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) modelling suggests these reforms could redirect 370,000 tonnes of plastic packaging from landfill each year, cut emissions by 0.7 million tonnes of CO2e annually and add $2.5 billion in economic activity.

Research has a role to play

Research through initiatives such as the Solving Plastic Waste CRC plays a critical role in sustainable plastic design, enabling recycling and remanufacturing.

What this means for the Gold Coast

On the Gold Coast, we are planning for a circular economy through a new Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and investigating the viability of a plastics recycling facility.

Policy certainty will be critical to enabling industry investment. Our waste audits show about 29,500 tonnes of plastic is disposed of to landfill on the Gold Coast, including 6,500 tonnes of recyclable plastic, while more than 5,000 tonnes of plastic is recovered at the Carrara MRF run by Visy.

That same focus on certainty, capability and local solutions is behind the Advanced Resource Recovery Centre (ARRC) precinct at Stapylton. Our integrated approach to tackling waste in green, yellow and red-lidded bins is designed around the waste hierarchy: avoid first, then reduce, reuse and recycle, with energy recovery reserved only for what remains, so every material is directed to its highest and best use.

ARRC Organics is already operating and ARRC Recycling is in design. Through ARRC Innovation, ARRC is also creating a place where recyclers, remanufacturers and researchers can work side by side, turning recovered materials into products, and research into industry.

A generational opportunity

The conditions for a domestic plastics economy are closer than they have been in a generation. Uncertainty abroad has created opportunity at home. Now government, business and research need to seize it together.

CEO of ARRC Gold Coast Grant Gabriel will be the keynote speaker, with Asset Strategy Manager Josh Evans speaking at 1pm, Thursday 20 August at Solving Plastic Waste Cooperative Research Centre (SPW CRC) Annual Partners Conference 2026.

Across three days, the conference will bring together the SPW CRC community to share updates, contribute to collaborative discussions and help shape Australia’s future in solving plastic waste.