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.
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.
A few of our favourites — about the business, and about the plastic itself.
Australian Recycled Plastics exists because trucks were driving home empty. The recycling plant was built to fill the return leg — the freight came first, the plastics came second.
The plant processes over two million bottles every single day — kerbside recycling from household bins, sorted and washed back into raw material.
Plants like ours are usually built in capital cities, close to the waste. Ours was built in Narrabri — the first of its kind in Australia, and the first in rural Australia.
HDPE is less dense than water and PET is denser, so a tank of water does the sorting for us. HDPE floats, PET sinks, and the two streams separate themselves.
Natural (uncoloured) HDPE — your milk bottle — is the most valuable grade we handle. With no dye in it, it can be turned into almost anything; coloured HDPE can only ever go darker.
HDPE is tough, chemical-resistant and doesn’t rust, which is why recycled HDPE ends up as water pipe, crates, wheelie bins and outdoor furniture built to last decades.
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
