Recycling grant creates pipeline of opportunities
An innovative Northern Territory water development company is recycling hundreds of tonnes of plastic thanks to a grant from the Australian and Northern Territory Governments.
Elsam Pipes won a $267,000 NT Recycling Modernisation Fund grant to install a pelletising line and conveyor system at its workshop in Darwin.
Old pipes will be recycled for use as polypipe.
The company has 230 tonnes of old piping stockpiled and is now preparing to take in piping from cattle stations and mine sites.
“The piping would have been buried or burnt, so recycling it is good for the environment,” said Elsam Pipes owner Adrian Brown.
“There’s also an economic benefit to what we’re doing.
“The good thing about plastic is that it can be reused and reused and reused. We’re giving a second life to plastic.
“We appreciate the government grant that is enabling us to do this.”
The business plans to create jobs by having a mobile unit that can go anywhere in the Territory to recoil and clean piping and freight it to Darwin for recycling – a good example of the Northern Territory’s growing circular economy.
The NT Recycling Modernisation Fund, a co-investment of the Australian and Northern Territory governments, is designed to support recycling infrastructure projects that grow the NT economy.
Round 2 of the grant saw a further $1.24 million invested in four major recycling projects which include Elsam Pipe Systems, Central Desert Regional Council, King’s Group and City of Darwin.
The grant program is expected to divert 5700 tonnes per annum of waste from Territory landfills, support more than 12 permanent jobs and 14 construction jobs.
The NT Recycling Modernisation Fund is one way in which the Northern Territory Government is establishing the waste industry as a contributor to the Territory’s $40 billion by 2030 vision, a key priority of the Northern Territory Circular Economy Strategy 2022-2027.
