Skip to main content

Glass ceiling breakthrough for Ammann in Australia

An Ammann ABP High Recycling Technology (HRT) asphalt mixing plant is a key part of an Australian recycled glass-for-asphalt scheme.
November 18, 2019 Read time: 3 mins
Business is a beach: Alex Fraser Group’s recycling plant is turning glass waste into high-quality sand

An Ammann ABP High Recycling Technology (HRT) asphalt mixing plant is a key part of an Australian recycled glass-for-asphalt scheme.

Alex Fraser Group’ state-of-the-art glass recycling plant in the state of Victoria is processing glass waste and turning it into high-quality sand. The product is then used by the adjacent Ammann ABP HRT plant to produce asphalt.
 
In addition to supplying the Ammann plant, the recycling facility provides road base, aggregates and sand for road and rail projects.

The plant can recycle up to 4 million bottles and produce up to 800tonnes of high-specification sand each day. According to the company, the source materials come from “problematic” glass waste streams that were previously stockpiled or landfilled.

“Our new glass recycling plant is capable of producing 200,000tonnes of recycled glass sand every year – equivalent to a billion bottles, effectively putting an end to glass waste stockpiles and landfill in Victoria,” said Peter Murphy, managing director for Alex Fraser.

The Ammann ABP HRT asphalt plant is designed to incorporate recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) and other recyclable products as the main stream materials that can produce more than 500,000tonnes of asphalt annually. It includes Ammann’s proprietary as1 EcoView control system software which monitors energy consumption and emissions, a foaming system for warm-mix capability and hot asphalt storage up to 72 hours.

153319
The Ammann ABP HRT asphalt plant can produce more than 500,000tonnes of asphalt annually

“The Ammann plant complements the other aspects of the Alex Fraser business,” said Paul Vandersluis, managing director of Ammann Australia. “Not only is the Ammann plant equipped with technology for today, but it can also accommodate future introductions of other types of recyclable materials – be  filler, binder or aggregate substitutes.”

“This energy-efficient plant is capable of producing high-quality asphalt mixes, made almost entirely of recycled materials,” Murphy said Ammann Australia’s . greenest asphalt mixes, such as Glassphalt, which includes recycled glass, and PolyPave, which includes recycled plastics, are being produced in Victoria state to supply a multitude of projects.

The large quantities of problem glass waste - known as CSP – are being taken to landfill at high cost. Made up of fine particles of glass co-mingled with other waste, including paper, plastics, metals and organics, this waste stream cannot be traditionally recycled back into the production of bottles or jars.
 
Murphy said the company combined years of recycling experience with the latest technology from around the world to design this innovative glass recycling plant. The new set-up uses a range of technologies to produce high-quality construction sand from the waste materials.

“Our new glass recycling plant separates the glass from the impurities and processes it into recycled sand, which complies with VicRoads (the governmental transportation agency) specifications,” said Murphy. “It directly replaces quarried sand and reduces the need for trucking virgin sand long distances into Melbourne which means fewer heavy vehicle movements on congested roads.”

 “The use of this material will have significant commercial and environmental savings, including the reduction of glass as landfill, vehicle movements and the carbon footprint of new projects, by up to 65%.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Rapid International supplies Collier Group with a batching plant
    December 7, 2017
    Rapid International has supplied Collier Group, based in Fife, Scotland, with the contractor’s first bespoke static concrete batching plant. Rapid, based in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, said that the batching plant was installed at Collier’s Goathill Quarry in Fife. Collier Group’s plant is built on a slope and includes five 4m-wide 80tonne capacity aggregate bins as well as three 160tonne capacity silos. The silos are accessed from the upper ground level, along with filler hoses to fill the four 2500
  • Ammann pushes the utilisation rate of recycled asphalt even higher
    December 16, 2016
    The Ammann team was confident it had a game-changer on its stand when the 2007 bauma exhibition opened in Munich. The company’s RAH100 asphalt dryer was about to take a massive step forward for the global highway industry – and to lead the market for years to come Ammann’s RAH100 wasn’t a simple upgrade of an existing product. It was much bigger than that. The dryer offered the ability to utilise 100% recycled asphalt … a benefit no other competitor could match. “That 100% utilisation rate was a miles
  • Resilient roads: sector cooperation is the key
    March 11, 2021
    Now is the time for national road agencies and the private sector to cooperate on building more climate resilient roads, urges Dr Erik Denneman*.
  • Sripath’s ‘growing’ rejuvenator market
    October 12, 2021
    The Illinois Tollway, the agency which maintains and operates toll roads in the state of Illinois, is currently trialling rejuvenators in a bid to increase the percentage of RAP that can be used in its roads while maintaining their performance