Visy, a packaging and resource recovery company based in Australia, is building a new glass recycling and manufacturing facility in Yatala, Queensland, Australia.
The project was announced in April 2022 and will include an investment of A$500m ($314m). It is part of Visy’s A$2bn investment plan in Australia over the next decade.
Recommended Buyers Guides
The new plant will manufacture approximately one billion glass containers and jars a year. It will also recycle glass, enabling 40,000t of glass or an equivalent of 200 million beer bottles to be diverted from landfill.
The ground-breaking for the manufacturing facility was held in October 2022. The plant is scheduled to commence operations in 2026.
The project is expected to create 600 jobs during construction and support 200 green-collar manufacturing jobs once operational, bringing Visy’s total workforce in Queensland to more than 1,000 people.
Location
The new glass recycling and manufacturing facility will be located at Stapylton in Yatala, Queensland.
Visy will relocate its current glass re-manufacturing operations from South Brisbane to Yatala, paving the way for the site along the Brisbane River to be transformed into an International Broadcasting Centre for the 2032 Olympic Games.
Furthermore, the site is located near Visy’s existing can manufacturing and cardboard box manufacturing facilities, which will create a beverage container precinct in the region.
Visy’s glass recycling and manufacturing facility details
The new plant will blend virgin resources with recycled glass collected from kerbside bins and through the Queensland Government’s Containers for Change initiative to manufacture new bottles for the food and beverage producers in Queensland. It will use energy-efficient manufacturing technology that will help in increasing the recycled content in Visy’s glass packaging from 30% to 70%.
The facility will include recycling, manufacturing and storage facilities, including an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) warehouse and a distribution centre.
The recycling facility will be equipped with 20 state-of-the-art optical sorting cameras that can identify glass pieces as small as 3mm, which will be fed into the furnaces for re-melting and reprocessing.
The glass manufacturing building will be equipped with furnaces designed to operate at temperatures as high as 1,580°C and, once commissioned, will collectively hold more than 1,000t of molten glass.
Emissions are expected to be lower than at conventional glass plants due to the use of an oxy-fuel furnace alongside the installation of cullet pre-heating technology for recycled material.
The ASRS warehouse spans 12,152m2 (130,803ft2), is 39m in height and will have the ability to store 171 million bottles.
Additional facilities will include a workshop, equipment parking area, canteen and amenities area, fire pumps and tanks and transformer yard.
Development phases
Visy’s Yatala facility will be developed in stages, with the first stage having four production lines with a manufacturing capacity of 960 million containers, or 200,000t glass, and a recycling capacity of 145,000t a year of waste container glass.
Stage two will add another production line to the facility and increase the manufacturing capacity to 250,000t and the recycling capacity to 175,000t.
Stage three will depend on market conditions and demand and increase the number of production lines to six. It will increase manufacturing capacity to 300,000t or 1.44 billion containers, and recycling capacity to 240,000t.
Construction details
To prepare the site for construction, 200,000m3 of earth, roughly the same volume as 80 Olympic-size swimming pools, was moved. By February 2024, construction on the first buildings on the site commenced.
The foundations and structural steel for the new glass furnaces and batch buildings were completed along with the glass container storage warehouse in 2025.
Project benefits
The new facility is being developed as one of the glass furnaces at Visy’s existing facility in South Brisbane is reaching its end of life and needs to be completely rebuilt. The new facility will ensure the continuity of operations for Visy and the supply of glass containers for its customers in Queensland.
The project will also combine Visy’s current glass recycling operations in Crestmead, which will provide logistical and commercial benefits.
The new facility will enable Visy to support Queensland’s clean energy future by increasing the recycling capacity of the state from 140,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to approximately 200,000tpa, while reducing emissions. It is also supported by long-term contracts to ensure Visy’s operational continuity in the region.
The project will also make Queensland self-sufficient in glass packaging, enabling the region to become a net exporter. It will support the operations of beverage companies based in the region, such as Bundaberg Brewed Drinks, Asahi, CUB, Lion and Coca-Cola.
Contractors involved
FDC Construction and Fitout is constructing the glass production building and the ASRS warehouse for the project.
DOMINION supplied high-spec refractory linings, cutting both power use and emissions across the glass recycling operation.
Howard Consulting is delivering project management alongside commercial and programme support for the drainage and wider civil works element of the project.
Some of the other contractors involved in the project are REDWAVE, FTI Group, Build Run Repair, Paramount Airconditioning and East Coast Cranes.
