WASTE MANAGEMENT IN ACTION – RECYCLING
Alex Fraser’s new glass recycling plant is capable of separating contaminants such as metal, paper and plastic from recyclable glass fines.
The road to recovery ALEX FRASER HAS DEVELOPED A WORLD-FIRST PROCESS TO RECYCLE MORE THAN 150,000 TONNES OF GLASS FINES BEING STOCKPILED OR LANDFILLED IN MELBOURNE EVERY YEAR.
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o you know what you’re driving on? This is the question Alex Fraser poses to consumers as part of Green Roads, a campaign that demonstrates the benefits of building greener roads with recycled materials. Reducing waste to landfill, infrastructure costs, glass waste, truck traffic and natural resources extraction, the company illustrates that a smarter way of construction exists. While Green Roads is a relatively new brand, Alex Fraser has been supplying green construction material to infrastructure companies for decades. The company is continuing to partner with developers and governments to reduce their carbon footprint and overall costs. Its work with councils, assets owners, contractors and regulators has over time seen an increased uptake of recyclables across more than 250 major infrastructure projects throughout
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Melbourne and Brisbane. One of its main areas of expertise is developing recycled glass sand that can be used in VicRoads-approved roadbase and asphalt. More than 150,000 tonnes of glass fines generated in Melbourne each year are unable to be recycled using traditional methods as its particles are too small to colour sort. Alex Fraser has been recycling this material for close to a decade now. However, a more problematic glass waste stream known as CSP has also been accumulating. CSP contains other materials like ceramics, stone porcelain, as well as metals, plastics and paper. Peter Murphy, Alex Fraser Managing Director, says these burgeoning stockpiles compelled Alex Fraser to forge a more sustainable way forward. “Over the last six years we’ve travelled the world researching plant designs, scoping the technology and
testing the components needed to design an innovative glass recycling plant, capable of producing a high quality construction sand from even the most difficult glass waste streams,” he says. Last year, the company built its first fixed glass recycling plant capable of separating contaminants such as metal, paper and plastics from recyclable glass fines. The custom-designed facility features a range of technologies to separate impurities from glass, as well as selfcleaning screens. Conveyors link the glass recycling facility to the company’s main recycling plant, enabling the glass sand to be blended into other products according to carefully calibrated mix designs. This link substantially reduces diesel consumption. The new facility is Victoria’s first licensed glass recycling plant under the state’s new EPA regulations. Now in full production, it is capable of recycling up
