Visy said on 27 October 2026 that it has produced the first glass bottles at its new Yatala glass recycling and manufacturing plant in Queensland, from the first of two oxy-fuel furnaces now being commissioned. The plant cost about USD 351m (AUD 500m) and has been under construction since October 2022. Once both furnaces are running it is designed to process up to 200,000 tonnes of recycled glass a year and make up to 1bn bottles and jars annually.
Why this mattersUp to 1bn bottles and jars a year at about 70% recycled content adds substantial Australian glass container and cullet-processing capacity for Visy.
- Visy announced first bottle production at Yatala, Queensland, on 27 October 2026, from the first of two oxy-fuel furnaces
- Total investment is about USD 351m (AUD 500m); construction began in October 2022
- Designed capacity is up to 1bn bottles and jars a year once fully operational
- The plant is designed to process up to 200,000 tonnes of recycled glass a year
- Target average recycled content is about 70% at full operation
- About 200 permanent jobs are expected once commissioning is complete
Visy has invested USD 21m (AUD 30m) in a new 2.8 metre wide corrugator at its Smithfield board factory in Western Sydney, lifting board output by 33%. The machine also improves board strength and flatness for high-speed packing lines and shelf-ready packaging. Smithfield is one of 18 Visy box plants in Australia and New Zealand.
Why this mattersA third more board output at Smithfield strengthens Visy's corrugated supply in New South Wales for food, beverage and agricultural customers, the site's core markets.
- Visy invested USD 21m (AUD 30m) in a new corrugator at its Smithfield board factory in Western Sydney
- The corrugator is 2.8 metres wide and uses real-time monitoring and digital process optimisation
- Board output at the factory rises by 33%
- Visy has made boxes at Smithfield for over 40 years; the site has more than 400 full-time jobs
- The site also hosts Australia's largest material recovery facility, two 100% recycled paper mills and a recycled plastics facility
- Smithfield is one of 18 box facilities in Visy's Australia and New Zealand network
Visy chief executive Mark De Wit said most Australian recycling facilities can no longer obtain insurance because of battery fires, and that Visy, Re.Group and Cleanaway have each lost a recycling site to fire in the past five years. Fire and Rescue NSW recorded 86 fires at waste and recycling centres between 1 January and 14 September 2026, against 114 in the whole of 2025. De Wit said the fires are now an almost daily event and are always caused by a battery.
Why this mattersUninsurable sorting assets raise the cost of recovering fibre and containers in Australia and put recycled feedstock supply for packaging makers at risk.
- Visy CEO Mark De Wit said most recycling facilities can no longer obtain insurance because of fire risk
- De Wit said Visy, Re.Group and Cleanaway have each lost a recycling site to fire in the past five years
- Fire and Rescue NSW recorded 86 fires at waste and recycling centres from 1 January to 14 September 2026, versus 114 for all of 2025
- NSW recorded 44 garbage truck fires so far in 2026 versus 62 for all of 2025
- ReTHiNK Waste Tasmania estimates 10,000-12,000 battery-related fires occur annually in Australia's waste and recycling system
- Veolia's Cairns waste-sorting centre was destroyed by a suspected lithium-ion battery fire in January 2025, diverting material to landfill
Visy sold the land under its Ettamogah paper mill near Albury, New South Wales, to Australian-American neo-cloud computing company Sharon AI for AUD 50m, with the transfer of 302.37 hectares completed on 29 June 2026. Visy is understood to be leasing the site back to continue its current operations. Sharon AI has not said what it will build and had lodged no development application as of 16 September 2026; Visy paid AUD 85m for the combined land and assets in 2019, buying them from Norske Skog.
Why this mattersMonetising mill land to a data-centre buyer while leasing back the plant gives paper producers a capital release that leaves production capacity untouched.
- The sale of 302.37 hectares at Ettamogah, near Albury, NSW, completed on 29 June 2026 for AUD 50m, according to data lodged with property platform Cotality
- Visy is understood to be leasing the premises back from Sharon AI for its current operations on an ongoing basis
- Visy paid AUD 85m in 2019 for the combined land and assets, acquired from Norske Skog
- Sharon AI, based in Sydney and New York, has not disclosed its plans and had lodged no development application as of 16 September 2026
- Albury MP Justin Clancy has called for guarantees on electricity and water use, infrastructure costs and local jobs; a local petition against a data centre had 350 verified signatures on 16 September 2026
- The Ettamogah site was built in the 1980s for Australian Newsprint Mills and later operated by Norske Skog from 2000, closing as a paper mill in late 2019.
- Visy has used the site as a warehouse and transport depot since 2020 and will remain there as a tenant leasing warehouse and logistics space after the sale.
- Sharon AI states it has 212MW of data centre capacity online or in development and plans to deploy about 64,000 Nvidia GPUs by mid-2027.
