The owner and operator of Port Plastics & Tooling has been involved in the recycling industry for almost 40 years, forging a solid business base in Port Macquarie since the early 1990s.

But the changing worldview of recycling coupled with a real desire to be innovative has led Mr Mainey to forge a new path into recycling products.

He has brokered a partnership with Done Coffee's Stewart Clark and Garry Thorncraft which is now well and truly kicking goals in the production of remanufactured product - including a waste plastic brick.

Called the RIch-Brick, the product was originally imagined as a replacement brick for use in landscaping or vegetable gardens. However, as with most innovative ideas, the trio has been venturing further afield with the concept.

It's been successfully used as a stand for new motor vehicles along with a host of other projects.

The business partners are now eyeing advancing their recycling and remanufacturing products through the just announced federal government's $190 million modernisation fund.

The fund was created after the Council of Australian Governments agreed to progressively ban the export of plastic, paper, tyres and glass waste from July 2020.

Cowper MP Pat Conaghan says the Recycling Modernisation Fund will support innovative investment in new infrastructure to sort, process and remanufacture materials such as mixed plastic, paper, tyres and glass, with Commonwealth funding contingent on co-funding from industry, states and territories.

It is estimated the RMF will generate about $600 million of investment in total.

The business partners are adamant they don't want to be a flash in the pan and over capitalise.

Mr Mainey said he recently purchased a recycling machine capable of recycling up to one tonne of plastic a day. While an operational plant would cost between $8 and $10 million to set up.

But that's the goal.

"Eventually we could employ somewhere between 30 and 60 people in a plant just using plastics that would normally go to landfill," Mr Mainey said.

"We have been slowly increasing the amount of plastics we receive from Sydney and other area which are then ground up before we recreate another product.

"The Rich-Brick is made out of a combination of recycling plastics but we are continually modifying and experimenting with different types of plastics."

Mr Clark said he became involved because he saw the need for recycling and cost effectiveness of recycling coffee bags.

"We organised a free pick up from local cafes and restaurants of their coffee bags and milk bottles," he said.

"Waste is a cost to every business in this sector - the coffee bags and milk bottles would just normally end up in landfill.

"But now we do the pick up before the product is pelletised and repurposed."

Mr Clark said local builders and event organisers are already seriously looking at the plastic brick to their needs.

Mr Thorncraft said he was keen to tap into the new recycling fund.

"This fund is certainly an area we really need to explore," he said.

"This is a pilot plant but we have a plant o create a dedicated plant that remanufactures plastic products."

For more information on the RMF visit the website.

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