UNSW SMaRT Centre has partnered with Jamestrong, a regional manufacturer of metal cans, to develop an initiative to improve aluminium manufacturing and recycling in Australia.
According to UNSW SMaRT Centre, the collaboration will position Jamestrong as one of the world’s first aluminium aerosol can manufacturers to make aerosol cans from recycled content and waste that is presently not recycled due to the presence of mixed materials such as plastics.
The Green Aluminium partnership, funded by Jamestrong and UNSW through the Australian Government-sponsored Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE) program, will commercialise UNSW SMaRT Centre’s advanced MICROfactorieTM recycling technology into Jamestrong’s can manufacturing process at its Taree, NSW plant.
Jamestrong CEO Alex Commins said Jamestrong was thrilled to be at the forefront of recycling programs in the metal packaging business, paving the way for a more sustainable future for the company and its consumers. He stated that the Green Aluminium MICROfactorieTM collaboration will increase local employment at the plant and pave the path for continued progress in sustainable packaging.
“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 added.
UNSW SMaRT Centre Director Professor Veena Sahajwalla said the collaboration with Jamestrong can revolutionise aluminium consumption and reuse by aligning recycling and manufacturing mixed waste content that is not susceptible to typical recycling methods.
“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,” Professor Sahajwalla stated.
“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,” she added.
The new casting line will employ an additional 30 FTE during construction and 15 FTE during operation. Additional technicians and scientists will be on-site as part of the collaboration with the UNSW SMaRT Centre.
The initial phase of constructing a new $8 million aluminium casting line is projected to be finished by the middle of 2024.
Once operational, the UNSW SMaRT Centre micro-factory’s technologies will be evaluated at the Jamestrong site, providing a real-time production setting to thoroughly assess the recycling processes.
