More than 1 billion plastic bottles will be recycled each year at a $45 million facility being built in Albury.
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Construction has begun two months early on the Circular Plastics Australia PET recycling plant in the Nexus Industrial Precinct in Ettamogah which will create more than 300 local jobs.
The first sod at the project was turned on Friday, which is being delivered in a joint venture between Asahi Beverages, Pact and Cleanaway, and is expected to be fully operational by October.
The raw plastic material the new plant will recycle each year is equivalent to 1 billion 600 ml PET plastic bottles and will be used to produce more than 20,000 tonnes of new recycled PET bottles and food packaging, making it the largest plant in Australia.
Asahi Beverage group chief executive Robert Iervasi said along with their manufacturing plant in Albury, the new recycling plant is part of their "long-term commitment to the region".
"This will be a world-class facility that helps transform Australia's recycling capacity and the Albury-Wodonga region should be proud of its contribution to manufacturing and recycling in Australia," he said.
The NSW Government chipped in $5 million towards the project as part of the Waste Less, Recycle More initiative funded from the waste levy, with the support of the Department of Regional NSW and the Australian Government's Recycling Modernisation Fund.
Environment Minister and Member for Farrer Sussan Ley said while the site has only been leveled, the factory will be operational before Christmas.
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"It will recycle more plastic bottles than any other location in Australia," she said.
"We want to pick up a plastic bottle and know it has been a plastic bottle before and that is what this factory will enable."
Albury MP Justin Clancy said the regional opportunities are "just as important" as the plant's environmental benefits.
"As we look at circular economy regional areas need to be at the forefront of that," he said.
"We have got the freight infrastructural, we have rail, we have road and we are central to metropolitan areas, where better to do it than Albury Wodonga.
"Albury will become the powerhouse of recycling."
Cleanaway chief executive Vik Bansal said the facility will recycle the containers collected through the NSW Return and Earn Scheme and Cleanaway's Material Recovery Facilities.
Albury-based Joss Construction are building the plant.
