How Dale Smith worked with equipment specialists Telford Smith Engineering to set up Australian Recycled Plastics, a specialist recycling and washing facility producing food grade PET.

It was a reverse logistics conundrum and curiosity that first led the owner of a family-run Australian haulage business to investigate the potential for plastics processing plant.

In 2013, Dale Smith, founder of Australian Recycled Plastics (ARP), contacted local machinery manufacturer Telford Smith Engineering about supplying a recycling line for mixed plastic bottles for his premises in north-west New South Wales.

Dale had bought the site in Narrabri three years ago when he and his wife, Helen, started thinking about a recycling plant. They also own a haulage firm, which transports about 30 percent of Australia’s cotton.