He revealed the plan 12 months ago and has applied for state government funding to subsidise the cost of the multi-million dollar project.

"We've been shortlisted (for funding) and we're just waiting to hear back," Mr Barton said.

Mr Barton said the facility, on land near Bunnings in east Warrnambool, would create about 15 jobs.

He said the region needed a material recovery centre due to its distance from Melbourne.

"One of our challenges is that we're three hours from the West Gate bridge," Mr Barton said.

The proposed materials recovery facility would see recyclable items sorted at the new purpose-built site before being sent to Melbourne.

He said the regional facility would service an area from Colac to Portland and up to Horsham.

"We want to be able to do a pre-sort at this facility," he said.

"We are doing this to help with the costs of the logistics.

"Currently we put it all on a truck, take it all down to Melbourne and then pay a gate fee to get in.

"We want to value add to it in Warrnambool so when we turn up down there we actually get paid for it."

Mr Barton said most of the earthworks had been done at the site, making the goal of mid-2021 for opening achievable. He said he also hoped to be able to get involved with the state government's proposal to introduce a deposit scheme for cans by offering that service at the site.

"There's no doubt we need a deposit scheme," Mr Barton said. "We're the last state to come on board - they're doing it everywhere else."

Mr Barton said he had visited places where there had been dozens of cars lined up to recycle their cans and bottles and he believed it would be successful in Victoria.

He said it would be a great way for children to raise some pocket money and do their bit for the environment.

He said it was extremely important people followed recycling guidelines.

Mr Barton said there was some misinformation about how recycling waste was processed.

He said there was a lot of "smoke and mirrors", with some misinformed members of the public speculating that recycling went straight to landfill.

"That has never happened," Mr Barton said of the recycled goods that are processed by his company.

Mr Barton said in addition to residents doing the right thing when recycling items, companies should be encouraged to use more environmentally-friendly packaging options.

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