Australia’s recycling system is only as strong as the end-markets and manufacturing capability that sustain it. While recycling rates have improved, too many materials still lack viable local pathways for reprocessing and reuse. Closing the loop requires more than collection, it depends on end markets, investment, innovation, and product design that works with existing collection methods or is facilitated by new ones.
Glass shows what can be achieved when those pieces come together.
Not long ago, glass recovery in Australia was limited. In 2018, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) reported that less than half of all glass packaging placed on the market – just 46 per cent – was recovered with around half of that going back into packaging.
By 2023, national recovery rates had climbed to 69 per cent, with 73 per cent of this going bottle to bottle; a marked improvement that was no accident. This has been driven by sustained investment in domestic recycling and remanufacturing.
Visy has been a contributor to that shift. In 2020, the company acquired the Australian and New Zealand glass manufacturing business of Owens-Illinois (O-I). That acquisition laid the groundwork for a genuine closed-loop system focused on keeping more glass at its highest and best use – with Visy also committing to reaching an average of 70 per cent recycled content in all of its glass bottle and jar manufacturing.
Since then, Visy has expanded its glass operations across the country. In Victoria, a new beneficiation plant in Laverton can clean and sort glass down to 3mm – doubling the site’s throughput capacity and increasing the amount of glass from household recycling bins that is recoverable for bottle-to-bottle remanufacturing.
In Penrith in Western Sydney, Visy commissioned Australia’s first oxy-fuelled glass furnace in 2024, delivering energy savings. In Queensland, a new $500 million glass recycling and remanufacturing super-site is under construction at Yatala, further strengthening national capacity.
These projects are delivering measurable results. In 2024 Visy increased the average recycled content in its glass packaging from 58 to 64 per cent across its operations. In the same year, Visy celebrated reaching 70 per cent average recycled content across all its glass packaging in New Zealand, the first jurisdiction to hit Visy’s 70 per cent recycled content commitment.
Read more: Visy signs MOU with ACCR
Each step up in recycled content means less landfill, less use of natural resources and, critically, lower emissions. A glass container made with 70 per cent recycled content can use up to 30 per cent less energy to produce than one made entirely from raw materials. The lesson extends beyond glass.
Recycling infrastructure is essential, but so is design. Glass has a natural advantage as it’s easily recyclable and can be recycled over again. By contrast other materials, like many plastics, are complex composites of different polymers that require multiple reprocessing methods at high cost to become usable again, undermining their value against virgin plastics. These challenges highlight the importance of designing packaging that can be effectively recovered and remade within the systems we already have.
Australia’s move toward a circular economy depends on strengthening those systems by creating domestic end-markets, reducing reliance on exports, and keeping more materials in use for longer. The shift now underway in glass recycling shows what’s possible when industry, technology, end markets and policy align.
As Tierry Lauren, executive general manager of recycling at Visy, puts it: “True circularity isn’t just about collection. Recycling is about ensuring what we recover stays in Australia, is remade here, and goes back into use at its highest value.”