Next time you put your plastic drink and milk bottles - and any other items - into your yellow recycling bins, spare a thought for the role they play in a great Narrabri success story.Australian Recycled Plastics is its name, and the company marked a rapid rise to prominence by taking out the Business of the Year - and the Innovation in Business gong for good measure - at the 2016 Narrabri Business Awards at The Crossing Theatre on Saturday night.The company was formed by Dale and Helen Smith, spun out of the need to better utilise the trucks that their ‘other’ company, Namoi Logistics, was using.
Those trucks are the major transporter of cotton to port, but they were returning to Narrabri empty.
Mr Smith said they hit upon the idea of detouring them to pick up plastic bottles from material recycling facilities all over the east coast, bringing the product back to Narrabri, and turning it into something useful for industry.