Step 01 · Intake
Raw materials in
Baled kerbside plastics are delivered and fed onto the infeed belt and shredder.
A first for Australia · Est. 2013
Turning everyday recycling into new material.
From Narrabri in North-West NSW, we run a recycling plant unlike any other in the country — one that simultaneously sorts and processes kerbside 442 plastics into clean PET and HDPE flake, ready to be made into something new.
442
Kerbside feedstock we process
40%
PET in every load
40%
HDPE in every load
20%
Mixed colour & contamination
2013
Established in Narrabri, NSW
Who we are
A family-built plant with a purpose beyond plastic.
Australian Recycled Plastics Pty Ltd was incorporated in 2013 by Dale and Helen Smith, with the purpose of building a plastic recycling plant in North-West NSW, Narrabri. Apart from the mining sector, our regional community had seen no significant diversification of industry.
Dale and Helen recognised the need to establish new industry, and saw an opportunity to be proactive — introducing an environmentally friendly manufacturing process that is a front-runner in providing a sustainable, stable business that is drought and flood proof, whilst creating longevity for employment and, in turn, spending in the local and broader community.
Read our story
The feedstock
What is “442”?
442 is the kerbside-collected recyclable plastic that most Australians put out each week. It arrives as a mixed waste stream — and we sort and process it, all at once, into re-usable flake. Very few plants worldwide can process 442 materials.
♻ Reduces landfill
🌱 Environmentally sustainable
🚜 Drought-proofing a rural community
Inside the plant
One continuous line, seventeen precise steps.
Raw materials arrive, and leave as clean PET and HDPE flake — sorted by magnets, eddy currents, ballistic separators, colour sorters, hot-wash and sink-floats along the way.
Step 09 · Separate
HDPE floats, PET sinks
Magnets, eddy currents and sink-floats split the stream into pure material types.
Step 17 · Out
Clean flake out
Dried, colour-sorted flake is bagged and loaded, ready for re-manufacture.
What we produce
Recycled flake, ready to be re-made.
Our end product can be repurposed by many other industries. Here is a taste of what leaves the plant.
PET Flake
10 mm cut size, colour-sorted and dried.
HDPE Flake
Clear (8 mm) and coloured (12 mm) grades.
Polypropylene & fines
PP flake plus PET and PET/HDPE fines.
In pictures
Life at the plant.
Our site at Narrabri, the production line in motion, and the local team that makes it run.
★ Recognised innovation
2016 Northern Inland Innovation Awards — Manufacturing Category Finalist.
Part of the Smith Group of Companies, working alongside our sister company Namoi Logistics.
Get in touch
Buying flake, selling bales, or looking for work?
We’d love to hear from you. Reach the team at Narrabri directly.
Our story
A first in Australia — by design, not by accident.
Australian Recycled Plastics is a manufacturing plant that is a first in Australia, able to process kerbside-collected recyclable 442 plastic materials into PET Flake and HDPE Flake simultaneously. These can be repurposed by many other industries — and there are very few plants worldwide that can process 442 materials.
442 waste materials are made up of 40 percent PET, 40 percent HDPE, and 20% mixed colour and various other waste-stream contamination. Extensive research was conducted to identify the feasibility of such a business, and the specialised equipment needed to build a plant with the ability to process 442 raw waste materials.
We consider Australian Recycled Plastics innovative because we are a one-of-a-kind recycling facility in Australia, simultaneously sorting HDPE, PET and coloured plastic. The technology used in our plant is widely used in the more progressive countries around the world — and it is the sourcing and implementing of this kind of innovative technology that improves our efficiency and competitiveness.
The factory
Inside the production line, step by step.
Follow a bale of kerbside plastic from the moment it arrives to the moment it leaves as clean, sorted flake — seventeen stages of shredding, separating, washing and drying.
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Intake
Transport of raw materials
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Shred
Infeed belt & shredder
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Clean
Magnet removes ferrous metals
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Separate
Top de-labeller & ballistic separator
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Convey
Belt to eddy current — mixed plastic & non-ferrous
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Clean
Eddy current removes non-ferrous
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Screen
Trommel ejects lids & small particles
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Sort
Two colour sorters
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ARP
Australian Recycled Plastics stand
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Wash
Hotwash removes glue
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Separate
Two sink floats — HDPE floats, PET sinks
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Purify
PET purifier
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Sort
Flake colour sorter
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Dry
Blower & drier for PET flake
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Bag · HDPE
HDPE bagging — end product
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Bag · PET
PET bagging — end product
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Dispatch
End product loaded for transport
★ Recognised innovation
2016 Northern Inland Innovation Awards — Manufacturing Finalist.
Our approach to recycling — and the specialised plant behind it — earned Australian Recycled Plastics a finalist place in the Manufacturing category of the 2016 Northern Inland Innovation Awards.
Providing this service, and running such an innovative manufacturing plant, lets us contribute to environmental sustainability: delivering a recycled product that will be re-used, reducing landfill, providing local employment, and assisting in drought-proofing a rural community.
Part of the Smith Group
Australian Recycled Plastics is part of the Smith Group of Companies, working alongside sister company Namoi Logistics.
The site & the people
Around the facility.
Want to see the plant, or buy the flake?
Talk to the team at Narrabri.
Products we sell
Recycled flake & fines.
Colour-sorted, washed and dried at our Narrabri plant, cut to consistent sizes for re-manufacture.
PET
PET Flake
10 mm cut size. Food-grade quality clear flake for bottle-to-bottle and fibre applications.
HDPE
HDPE (Clear) Flake
8 mm cut size. Natural clear high-density polyethylene flake.
HDPE
HDPE (Coloured) Flake
12 mm cut size. Mixed-colour high-density polyethylene flake.
PP
Polypropylene Flake
12 mm cut size. Recovered polypropylene flake for re-processing.
PET
PET Fines
Fine PET material recovered through the purification stage.
Mixed
PET / HDPE Fines
Blended fine material from the combined PET and HDPE streams.
Products we purchase
Selling baled plastic? We buy these grades.
We purchase kerbside-collected material by its resin identification code. If you have a supply, we’d like to talk.
1PET / PETE
PET or PETE — #1
Polyethylene terephthalate — clear drink and water bottles.
2HDPE
HDPE — #2
High-density polyethylene — milk bottles and household containers.
5PP
PP — #5
Polypropylene — tubs, lids and rigid packaging.
Make an enquiry
Talk to us about flake supply or material purchasing.
Jennifer and the team can help with pricing, volumes and freight.
Sister company
Passionate about the cotton industry.
Did you know that Aussie cotton growers produce enough cotton to clothe 500 million people? Or that one 227-kilo bale can yield 765 men’s dress shirts — or 21,960 handkerchiefs?
Namoi Logistics is responsible for transporting a large percentage of Australia’s cotton bales. We also transport grain, general freight, recycled plastics — and anything that needs transporting.
500M
People able to be clothed by Australia’s cotton crop
765
Men’s dress shirts from a single 227 kg bale
21,960
Handkerchiefs from that same bale
The full circle
From empty trucks to a recycling plant.
Namoi Logistics’ trucks are the major transporter of cotton to port — but they were returning to Narrabri empty. Dale and Helen Smith hit upon the idea of detouring them to collect plastic bottles from material recovery facilities all along the east coast, bringing the product back to Narrabri, and turning it into something useful for industry.
That reverse-logistics insight became Australian Recycled Plastics — closing the loop between freight, cotton and recycling, all from one regional base.
🚛 Cotton bales
🌾 Grain
📦 General freight
♻ Recycled plastics
One group
Part of the Smith Group of Companies.
Australian Recycled Plastics and Namoi Logistics operate side by side under the Smith Group of Companies — a family business built in, and for, regional New South Wales.
More about ARP
Recycling overflow adds new uncertainty for Victorian councils amid China import ban
Waste management in Victoria has been plunged into uncertainty, with many local councils unsure of where or how to dispose of their recyclable materials, after a major recycling company pulled back on some of its contracts.
The ABC understands the recycling company VISY told several waste-disposal companies it would cease accepting recyclable materials in early February, citing the commercial difficulties caused by China’s ban on the importation of certain types of waste.
Source: ABC NewsNorthern Inland Innovation Awards
Australian Recycled Plastics was named a finalist in the Manufacturing and Engineering category at the 2016 Northern Inland Innovation Awards — recognition of the innovative, first-in-Australia manufacturing process behind the plant.
Australian Recycled Plastics named Narrabri Business of the Year
Next time you put your plastic drink and milk bottles — and any other items — into your yellow recycling bins, spare a thought for the role they play in a great Narrabri success story.
Australian Recycled Plastics is its name, and the company marked a rapid rise to prominence by taking out the Business of the Year — and the Innovation in Business gong for good measure — at the 2016 Narrabri Business Awards at The Crossing Theatre on Saturday night. The company was formed by Dale and Helen Smith, spun out of the need to better utilise the trucks that their ‘other’ company, Namoi Logistics, was using.
Those trucks are the major transporter of cotton to port, but they were returning to Narrabri empty. Mr Smith said they hit upon the idea of detouring them to pick up plastic bottles from material recycling facilities all over the east coast, bringing the product back to Narrabri, and turning it into something useful for industry.
Australian Recycled Plastics: equipping a specialist facility
How Dale Smith worked with equipment specialists Telford Smith Engineering to set up Australian Recycled Plastics — a specialist recycling and washing facility producing food-grade PET.
It was a reverse-logistics conundrum and curiosity that first led the owner of a family-run Australian haulage business to investigate the potential for a plastics processing plant. In 2013, Dale Smith, founder of Australian Recycled Plastics (ARP), contacted local machinery manufacturer Telford Smith Engineering about supplying a recycling line for mixed plastic bottles for his premises in north-west New South Wales.
Dale had bought the site in Narrabri three years earlier, when he and his wife, Helen, started thinking about a recycling plant. They also own a haulage firm, which transports about 30 percent of Australia’s cotton.
New industry for Narrabri shire
Narrabri shire will soon have a major new industry — an innovative plastics recycling plant which will add a new dimension to the local and regional economy. The plastics processing facility at Narrabri West, representing a multi-million-dollar investment, will be unique in Australia.
Australian Recycled Plastics will process used plastic bottles and containers drawn from the east coast of Australia to produce clean plastic flakes ready for manufacture into new products. The sophisticated plant will sort and clean about 60 tonnes — some four million — plastic bottles and containers per day.
Get in touch
Want to know more about our story?
Read about the plant and the process, or reach the team at Narrabri directly.
Working with us
A diverse team, drawn from the local community.
Australian Recycled Plastics, based in Narrabri, employs a diversified section of people within the local and surrounding communities. Creating longevity for employment — and, in turn, spending in the local and broader economy — was one of the founding purposes of the business.
Our plant is a genuinely new industry for the region: a stable, drought- and flood-proof workplace that gives regional workers a future close to home.
Our policies
A safe, professional workplace.
Our employment policies cover the following — a clear standard we hold for every member of the team.
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Mandatory drug & alcohol testing before employment
Every new team member completes pre-employment testing before starting on site.
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Zero tolerance to illegal substances
A firm, non-negotiable standard that keeps everyone on site safe.
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Alcohol in accordance with Australian Standards
Workplace alcohol limits are applied strictly to the relevant Australian Standards.
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Mandatory PPE — supplied and must be worn
All personal protective equipment is provided by us, and must be worn on site at all times.
In the community
More than a workplace.
We’re proud to be part of Narrabri life — supporting local causes and community events, and giving people a reason to stay, work and grow in the region they call home.
When you join Australian Recycled Plastics, you join a team that’s helping to drought-proof and diversify a rural economy.
How to apply
Interested in joining the team?
Get in touch with us directly — we’d love to hear from you.