FOLLOWING upgrades to the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Hume, it’s now able to implode glass and transform it into a high quality sand product, says ACT NOWaste director Michael Trushell. 

The upgrades include eight million dollar improvements to the recycling centre, making the plant one of the best co-mingled sorting facilities in Australia.

“One of the highlights is the installation of new optical sorting technology. Using image recognition technology, plastic recyclables pass through a system with high resolution images recorded,” Mr Trushell says.

“These are then checked against a database to correctly identify the plastic with the item then sorted for bailing. The most impressive aspect of this system is its capacity to learn to recognise more items as more packaging is processed. 

“Trials are underway which will assist in a variety of civil work projects including road bases and concrete mix, reducing our carbon footprint and creating jobs.”

Mr Trushell says the new technology at the facility is also great benefit for sorting and bailing plastics, metals, glass as well as paper and cardboard.

“Having an upgraded MRF maximises our resource recovery and remanufacturing of products in Australia or for sale to overseas markets,” he says.

The new technology will support progress towards the achievement of the ACT government’s waste recovery target, 90 per cent resources recovery by 2025 as reflected in the “ACT Waste Management Strategy, 2011-2025”.