Australia’s Western Sydney Recycling Plant Sets a New Standard - But It Starts with Us!

Cleanaway has just opened one of Australia’s most advanced recycling facilities in Western Sydney, and it’s a game changer.

Built to process up to 120,000 tonnes of waste every year, the new Material Recovery Facility (MRF) uses cutting-edge technology to sort and recover recyclables like cardboard, glass, aluminium, steel, and plastics. Even better, it’s achieving up to 99.5% purity in plastic recycling; meaning more of our rubbish can actually be turned into something new.

But here’s what we have to do: for all this incredible technology to work, we need to do our part at home. Contaminated items like dirty containers or incorrect waste types (think: soft plastics, food scraps, lime in your corona bottle, nappies) can ruin an entire batch of recyclables. And batteries? Well, they’re a serious hazard. Improperly disposed batteries have caused thousands of fires in Australian recycling streams, they are risking lives, equipment, and the environment. 

This new facility is leading the way in fire-safe infrastructure, using AI thermal cameras, smoke detection systems, and massive fire suppression tanks. But the safest solution is to never put batteries in the bin, drop them off at designated collection points instead.

So next time you're throwing out your rubbish or cleaning up after a wild night, just remember: recycling right starts with us. Clean, correct, and battery-free, that’s how we keep our recycling systems strong and sustainable.