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Assistant Minister for Education, Senator Anthony Chisholm (pictured above with Veena) has lauded the work of the UNSW SMaRT Centre as part of the new Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE) research commercialisation program.
Assistant Minister Chisholm officially launched the inaugural showcase for a new recycling and clean energy hub in Sydney today which will support more than 5,000 regional jobs and boost the Australian economy by up to $15 billion over the next 20 years.
The $280 million Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE) is a collaboration between the University of New South Wales, the University of Newcastle and industry partners to support Australia’s transition to net zero by 2050.
“This important work is already underway with SMaRT (UNSW Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology) and TRaCE partnering with aluminium manufacturer Jamestrong to commercialise advanced recycling technology into its manufacturing process at their plant in Taree," the Assistance Minister said.
“The project will revolutionise aluminium manufacturing and recycling in Australia, and establish Jamestrong as one of the first aluminium aerosol can producers in the world to use recycled content, including waste currently not recycled because it contains mixed materials.”
Assistant Minister Chisholm said TRaCE would benefit a number of regional communities across Australia, with regionally based projects including SMaRT's green ceramic recycling technology in the NSW South Coast region, storage assets in Queensland, and solar projects across northwest Victoria.
SMaRT Director Prof Veena is the Lead of the Recycling stream of the TRaCE prorgram, and the UNSW SMaRT Centre is leading the development of a ground-breaking project using SMaRT Green Aluminium technology to revolutionise aluminium manufacturing and recycling in Australia.
Another SMaRT-led project with partner Kandui Technologies is advancing the commercialisation of SMaRT's Green Ceramics MICROfactorieTM technology.
See Senator Chisholm's announcement
The partnership will establish Jamestrong as the one of the first aluminium aerosol can producers in the world to not only make aerosol cans from recycled content, but from waste currently not recycled because it contains mixed materials including plastics.
Funded by Jamestrong and UNSW under the Australian Government sponsored Trailblazer for
Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE) program, this Green Aluminium partnership will commercialise UNSW SMaRT Centre’s advanced MICROfactorieTM recycling technology into Jamestrong’s can manufacturing process at its plant in Taree, New South Wales.
Jamestrong CEO, Alex Commins said Jamestrong was excited to be at the forefront of recycling initiatives in the metal packaging sector, creating a more sustainable future for Jamestrong and its customers. He said the Green Aluminium MICROfactorieTM partnership would boost local employment at the plant and pave the way for continued progress in sustainable packaging globally.
“With UNSW SMaRT Centre we are advancing our aluminium casting line capabilities in the existing footprint of our plant in Taree, which will reshore the manufacture process of aluminium slugs that we currently import from Thailand. The UNSW SMaRT Centre partnership will mean recycled aluminium will be introduced into Jamestrong’s aerosol can production process, and the slugs produced on the new casting line will be used in the plant’s extrusion process to manufacture more than 100 million aerosol cans per year," he said.
Professor Veena Sahajwalla, Director of the UNSW SMaRT Centre said the partnership with Jamestrong had the potential to transform the use and re-use of aluminium by aligning recycling and manufacturing of mixed waste content that is currently not subject to traditional recycling processes.
“Our Green Aluminium MICROfactorieTM technology is able to recover aluminium from a range of mixed waste feedstocks including waste packaging. The innovative recovery of the recycled aluminium will be incorporated directly into the manufacturing process producing slugs, with varying degrees of recycled content available depending on production requirements."
"Every atom of aluminium that exists in our society, whether in multi-layered form or any other format, can actually be regenerated and brought back to life over and over again, and that's what we're doing with Jamestrong right here in Taree."
Jamestrong is one of the largest private company employers in Taree, with 85 FTE people operating the can manufacturing site which celebrated its 30-year anniversary in 2021. The new casting line will employ an additional 30 FTE staff during construction and 15 FTE in operation. As part of the partnership with the UNSW SMaRT Centre, additional technicians and scientists will also be on-site.
While an exact date for implementation is yet to be determined, it is expected that the initial phase of creating a new $8 million aluminium casting line will be completed by about the middle of 2024.
Once operational, technologies developed at the UNSW Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre micro-factory will be tested at the Jamestrong site, supplying a real-time production environment to fully evaluate the recycling processes.
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