FOY Group Ltd Managing Director Stuart Clark has issued a response to David Tuckwell’s opinion piece “On FOY’s refinery, the ACT Greens have missed an opportunity to lead”.
There are now eight million metric tons of plastic flowing into the ocean every year. So much that there will be more plastic by weight in the sea than fish by 2050 (https://newplasticseconomy.org/report-2016).
The use of heavy levies and fines by governments simply has not worked to achieve reducing the flow of waste plastics into our waterways and misdirected pollution in general.
Historically, approximately 80% of plastic consumed and in circulation is not recycled and 72% of plastic used in packaging is not recycled. In Australia, a total of 313,700 tonnes of plastics were sent for recycling either locally or via export in 2013-14, representing 20.4% of consumed plastic. This indicates that approximately 80% of plastic consumed is likely to be still in circulation or has been diverted to landfill. This is predominately due to the fact that the majority of plastics are uneconomic to recycle back to plastic consumer or industrial goods. Plastic consumption is increasing so the problem can’t be ignored.
The plastics are discarded into the environment because they have no value. A real solution has been developed by The FOY Group. FOY is a proud Australian technology company that works with business, community and government to rid our waterways and our land of harmful, end-of-life, non-recyclable plastics, by converting them to fuel. The FOY process takes proven technology and science and combines these in a unique way to produce Australian Standard road-ready diesel and petrol.
FOY proposes to construct a facility at Hume that will process 200 tonnes per day of waste plastic that is not recyclable and which would normally be disposed of as landfill or worse still as pollution in our waterways and landscape. FOY is working with their aggregators and local waste authorities in the ACT to utilise ACT generated non-recyclable waste as a first priority. This will provide a permanent and sustainable alternative to landfill. FOY strongly advocates that plastics that are potentially recyclable, must be recycled. The plastics supply contracts that FOY has with waste aggregators specifically rejects all recyclable plastics.
The FOY proposal is being comprehensively and independently reviewed by the ACT Government and in conjunction with this, FOY has commissioned and received a full Health Impact Assessment undertaken by an independent third party as well as many other independent studies. All these reports are available on the ACT Government website.
“Petrol and diesel make up the majority of fuel consumed in support of our current businesses and lifestyles. Its demand levels are high. An Australian made, lower cost fuel, which meets Australian standards, lowers emissions and reduces the carbon footprint required to produce road fuels when compared to conventional extraction and production methods by up to 38%, will be attractive to the market,” Stuart Clark, Managing Director FOY Group Ltd said.
“FOY welcomes the ACT Government process to confirm the science and safety of its proposal. FOY wants to provide the local community with the facts. We want to be good neighbours that the ACT can be proud of. Regrettably, those that remain the most vocal against us are the very parties that have refused multiple invitations to meet and as such continue to disperse misinformation.
“FOY has an answer to the massive worldwide problem of waste plastic pollution. It is a solution that reduces the carbon footprint, reduces the price of fuel in Australia, reduces the need to extract more fossil fuels and creates Australian jobs. Canberra has the opportunity to be part of this solution that protects the world’s landscapes and our oceans.”
