As a leader in advanced manufacturing, W&S Plastics is one of the few Australian manufacturers to hold ISCC PLUS certification across two facilities. This places the business at the forefront of how recycled materials are being integrated into production. Using recycled plastic in injection molded components is increasingly achievable.
Mechanical versus chemical recycling and why it matters
Not all recycled plastic is produced the same way. Mechanical recycling, which grinds and reforms used plastics, has limitations that can make it unsuitable for many manufactured components.
In contrast, chemical recycling is fundamentally different. Rather than reforming the physical material, it breaks down used plastics into chemical building blocks using processes such as pyrolysis, gasification, and depolymerisation.
Those building blocks are then used to formulate new plastics. These plastics are suitable for a wide range of applications, including medical devices.
What changes on the production floor and what doesn’t
A common query from customers considering recycled content is whether it will affect how their product is made or how it performs. In the case of chemically recycled materials, the manufacturing answer is straightforward: no changes are required to tooling, processing parameters or production methods.
What does change is the documentation and traceability that surrounds the material. Using certified recycled content means accurately recording where it has been used, how much has been attributed to each product, and how that material flows through production. W&S Plastics has built its production systems to specifically capture this level of detail.
The certification infrastructure behind the claim
W&S Plastics holds ISCC PLUS certification, the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification, across both its Sydney and Malaysia facilities. This makes it one of the very few Australian manufacturers to hold dual-site certification under this scheme, and one of the first in Australia to achieve it.
ISCC PLUS is a globally recognised certification that verifies the use of sustainable and recycled materials through a traceable, auditable supply chain. It provides the documented evidence trail that customers need when making recycled content claims, whether to their own customers, to a regulator, or as part of ESG reporting.
W&S Plastics also maintains this level of traceability across all products, not just those using recycled content. This system-wide approach ensures consistent visibility across materials, production, and output, regardless of whether certification is required.
The supply chain consideration customers often miss
One aspect of working with certified recycled materials that customers may not anticipate is that traceability is increasingly important as a supply chain requirement, not just a manufacturer requirement. For the chain of custody to hold, each stage of the supply chain must be certified.
This is particularly relevant for customers in regulated industries, and increasingly relevant for those responding to the sustainability requirements of their own major customers or export markets.
Getting ahead of where regulation is heading
Many organisations are already moving ahead of formal regulatory requirements on recycled content, and for practical reasons. Building certified recycled content into a product today, with the supply chain in place to support it, removes the cost and disruption of having to redesign or re-specify materials when regulations tighten.
As the circular economy continues to reshape how products are designed and specified, material choice is becoming a lifecycle conversation rather than a production detail. More customers are thinking about how a component re-enters the material cycle at end of life, and factoring that into design decisions from the outset rather than addressing it after the fact.
For more information about recycled material options and ISCC PLUS certified supply chains, contact the W&S Plastics team.
