The Australian Pipeliner explores how polyethylene pipes can contribute to a sustainable industry.
Polyethylene (PE) has been used in piping for more than 60 years, but in the old days its capabilities were severely limited. Fast forward to 2025 and PE pipelines are a dominant force in the utilities industry, making up around 85 per cent of water services infrastructure in Australian cities. They are also prolific in telecommunication, irrigation, and gas transmission networks.
Being lightweight, relatively simple to manufacture, corrosion-resistant, and cost-effective makes PE a competitive choice for asset owners. And unlike single-use plastic, modern PE pipes are engineered to last for a century and can be recycled at the end of their lifespan.
To learn more about how PE pipe is revolutionising the industry, The Australian Pipeliner spoke with Cindy Bray, Executive General Manager of the Plastics Industry Pipe Association of Australia Limited (PIPA).
Plastic gets a bad name, Bray said, but PE has a lot to offer in terms of economic circularity.
“PE pipes are made using engineered polymer materials that are highly stable – a design that facilitates simple recycling and supports a circular economy,” she said.
“With an exceptional service life, most plastic pipes are still in their first life cycle. This is very different from single-use plastic.”
Long life design, reuse and repair, and recyclability are all principles of a circular economy, and PE pipe checks each of these boxes.
Common plastics used for pipe production are readily reprocessed, making them 100 per cent recyclable.
These materials are highly valued, with the industry proactively reclaiming as much as possible through efficient manufacturing practices, reuse of scrap generated during production, and the recycling of old pipes. This serves to both reduce the consumption of these finite materials and diverts a significant amount of waste from landfill.
“Old PE pipe can be reprocessed back to its pelletised form, and then can be used in non-pressure pipes,” Bray said.
When it comes to manufacturing PE pipe using recycled materials, the industry must adhere to strict quality assurance and control guidelines. This ensures that pipes made from such material are guaranteed to meet the safety, performance, and lifespan expectations of the Australian market.
PIPA has been hard at work developing technical guidelines for the industry when it comes to using recycled material in PE pipe manufacturing.
“The industry has worked quite hard on developing guidelines to help recyclers and manufacturers scrutinise recycled material to make sure that it is fit for purpose,” Bray said.
“And once it’s manufactured, we’ve looked at additional testing that should be done on that pipe to make sure that it is going to still last that 100-year lifespan.”
Currently, recycled material is only permitted in the manufacturing of non-pressure pipes, such as drainage and irrigation.
The combination of long product life and efficient recycling initiatives has left the PE pipe manufacturing industry with a unique problem. At the moment, there’s not a lot of raw material available to work with.
“PIPA is focusing on working across industries to increase the quantity of recyclable material available for manufacturers,” Bray said.
“One of the things we’re doing is identifying those areas where plastic pipes are being used for shorter lifespans and reclaiming that material. Mine sites are a great example, as they typically operate for around 30 years.
“Plastic pipes – particularly PE pipes – are used quite extensively on mines in applications like transferring water and slurries, and so on. And those pipes sit above the ground, so we don’t have to dig them up.
“This is just one opportunity where we can reclaim those pipes, adding a significant amount of recyclable material back into the manufacturing cycle relatively quickly.”
Recyclable material is not strictly limited to PE pipes. PIPA has technical guidelines about the use of other types of plastics in the pipe-making process.
“Part of what PIPA’s technical guidelines do is provide the manufacturer with an ingredients list,” Bray said.
“With some products, like corrugated drainage pipes, manufacturers might use alternative sources of recycled HDPE, such as milk bottles.
“But they might only use 30 per cent recycled material so ensure that the finished product will meet relevant performance standards.”
The PE industry is one of the most rapidly developing industries in Australia. As technology advances, these pipes are finding their way into more complex projects and can now be manufactured domestically in diameters up to 2m.
Thanks to the hard work of industry figures like PIPA, the quality, recyclability, and capabilities of PE pipe will only continue to grow.
This feature also appears in the January edition of The Australian Pipeliner.