Waverley Council adopts new waste technology

MEDIA RELEASE

Waverley Council and five other councils from the Southern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (SSROC) collaborated with Veolia Australia and New Zealand to deliver a state-of-the-art Mechanical and Biological Treatment (MBT) facility, which opened at the Woodlawn Eco-precinct earlier this month.

This new facility, located 42km from Goulburn, uses cutting-edge resource recovery technology to produce compost from commercial and residential kerbside red general waste bins.

Household and commercial waste is rotated through large drums along with air and water to separate compostable material from inorganic waste such as metals during the process.

This technology will divert 55% of household waste from landfill and transform the residual waste into a compostable substance which will be used to remediate an expired mine site.

Waverley Mayor John Wakefield said he was really pleased the new facility delivers a sustainable solution to landfill.

“Waverley Council has some ambitious sustainable targets, and being part of a new advanced waste treatment facility such as this one will really help us achieve them. We are hoping to divert 75% of all waste from landfill by 2020. We also aim to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 30 % by 2020.

“Not only does this facility divert more than half of our general waste from landfill, it provides value for money. Councils pay a levy of $138 per tonne of municipal waste that goes to landfill, and with the average Sydney-sider generating 2000kg of waste per year, there will be significant savings for our residents,” he said.

The MBT facility cost $100 million and took almost ten years to negotiate and deliver across SSROC and the six participating councils.

“There is no change for residents, we still need the community to reduce waste and recycle right. This is an innovative way of putting the waste we do create to good use,” said Mr Wakefield.

For more information about the facility and Waverley Council’s other waste initiatives, visit www.waverley.nsw.gov.au