Meadowbrook-based innovator B&C Plastics has set out to “redesign the rules” of the industry, with several work-in-progress projects expected to change the game for recycling.
Whether it’s developing recycled products for the medical and construction industries, reducing plastic waste in landfills, or boosting the representation of women in the industry – B&C Plastics is on a mission to do it all.
Co-founder Wendy Kent said the company was “not here to fit in”.
“We’re here to redesign the rules,” she said.
Recently, B&C Plastics was one of eight businesses to be awarded a grant under the Queensland Circular Economy Investment Program.
The grant will fund company efforts to develop and use products made from recycled plastic materials in the medical industry.
CEO Roysten Kent said the endeavour was more than “building a business that is just about manufacturing a product”.
“There is a genuine movement here, more of a platform that we’re trying to build and educate with Australia-made sustainability, circular procurement, and policy,” he said.
“Taking local waste streams from hospitals, for example, and then turning them back into products like sharps bins, so it gives the plastic a second life.”
Currently, B&C Plastics is working with the University of Queensland to develop bioplastics and trial their effectiveness.
Initial commercial trials in Queensland hospitals have seen success; the next steps will be about delivering the product to the public.
In developing bioplastics, Mr Kent said the company hoped to “eliminate a waste stream that just goes to landfill.”
“What will happen is the biodegradable [plastic] materials effectively break down.”
When the business began 19 years ago, the manufacturing and engineering fields were considered a “man’s world”, which Ms Kent said was challenging.
“When I first joined B&C Plastics, it was quite a struggle to fit in. I felt that I had to fit in with everyone, and I don’t think I was taken too seriously,” Ms Kent said.
“But I think as time’s gone on, women have become stronger [in the industry]. We’ve definitely got a place in manufacturing, and diversity is definitely our strategy here at B&C Plastics.”
Ms Kent said the company hoped to bring more women into the company and the wider industry.
Now a leader in the field, the B&C Plastics team hopes to influence the broader Australian business landscape, educate business regulators and government leaders to lead locally with sustainability.
“The change does need to happen here where we embrace more locally made [products],” Mr Kent said.
“The future of Australian manufacturing isn’t just ‘made in Australia’, it’s made differently, hence our sustainable and circular feel.”
Recently, they’ve opened an online shop selling products made from recycled plastics for the paint industry.
“The products that we have in our shop at the moment are products that have been born from our sustainability and circular arm, where we genuinely recycle local waste content and turn it into plastic injection molded products,” Mr Kent said.
“Taking waste streams that are going to the landfill and turning them into products. So, for example, it might be a 15L paint pail that gets turned into a paint tray or a paint bucket or a paint scraper.”
Products like paint pails, scrapers, and stirrers are currently available in selected Haymes stores and Mitre 10 in Beenleigh. But expanding their product range is on the horizon.
“There’s a lot of products on the table at the moment as well, from rat bait stations to termite bait stations to additional hardware products,” Mr Kent said.
“And we’ve actually got a really pretty cool range of decorative pots that we’ve got conceptualised at the moment as well.
“This is definitely something that is left of center for us, it’s not something that we would normally do, we are a custom manufacturer normally.”
