The Federal Government will support an $11.3M upgrade to SULO’s Somersby plant as part of a $20M investment in SULO’s parent company, Pact Group, under the $1.3B Modern Manufacturing Initiative.
The $20M will help enable more recycled content to be used in packaging and divert around 125,000 tonnes of plastic waste from landfill each year.
Federal Member for Robertson, Lucy Wicks, said the move would help the environment, enable SULO to increase its production capacity and deliver more local jobs in manufacturing.
“The upgrade will create more than 20 new permanent full-time jobs in the Somersby facility, as well as employ numerous local trades people and services throughout the installation and commissioning of the equipment.
“While assisting SULO to embrace new and innovative technology, this funding will also help to turn more of our waste into valuable products.
“The grant enables SULO to install new state-of-the-art injection moulding, blending and material handling equipment used to manufacture mobile garbage bins.
“The upgrade will enable more recycled plastic content to be used in the manufacturing process, up to 80 per cent from the current average of 30 per cent.
“The new equipment will also increase production capacity to support the rollout of waste management initiatives across Australia including Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) bins and dedicated glass bins.”
Pact Group CEO, Sanjay Dayal, welcomed the government funding to support local manufacturing.
“Pact Group is extremely thankful to the Australian Government for the $20 million funding to support our substantial investments in sustainable packaging and recycling facilities around Australia,” Dayal said.
“Pact is committed to building a local circular economy and we are proud of our progress to date.”
Source:
Media release, Nov 26
Member for Robertson, Lucy Wicks