Close the loop has announced that it is currently upgrading its TonerPlas line, and that it will be back in full production by July 2023.

When this happens, the company said it will require large volumes of soft plastic material to meet demands for both TonerPlas and rFlex products.

The company’s TonerPlas production line was affected in June when a fire broke out in its Somerton, Victoria facility.

“In Australia, Close the Loop Group are the largest user of the post-consumer soft plastics that have been collected through the RedCycle program, in addition to using mixed plastic packaging from other sources,” the company said.

“We have worked with Redcycle for several years, taking huge volumes of this highly contaminated, post- consumer material that form a main ingredient in our asphalt improvement product- TonerPlas, as well as our recycled plastic injection-molding resin rFlex.

“We believe we are the only company that has been able to process 100 per cent of the material received from RedCycle, in-line with our Zero Waste to Landfill brand promise. These materials have been combined with recycled toner powder and other key ingredients to manufacture the TonerPlas product, which is then supplied to companies for inclusion into their asphalt mix.

“TonerPlas improves the longevity of roads and has been used in resurfacing projects across Australia including the Monash and M80 freeway upgrades in Victoria.

“Despite using the material at scale at our plant, the volumes of material recovered by RedCycle appear to exceed the capacity of any sole business to recycle.

“The use of these materials by Close the Loop is possible due to the novel IP that the business has developed, to process the mixed, post-consumer soft plastic waste from sources such as RedCycle that would otherwise be difficult to reuse for new applications.

“Other products using post-consumer soft plastic waste can only use the materials at small percentages due to the poor quality of the feedstock, in addition to a vital lack of end-market buy-back for these type of recycled content items.

“While we are currently upgrading our TonerPlas line, we will be back in full production by July 2023 and will require large volumes of soft plastic material to meet demands for both TonerPlas and rFlex products”.