FEATURE
No time to waste Lane Cove has partnered with four other councils to structure an environmentally sustainable solution to divert waste away from landfill. By Jocelyn Biddle.
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s a member of the Northern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (NSROC), Lane Cove has joined together with Hunters Hill, Ku-ring-gai, North Sydney, Ryde and Willoughby councils and entered into a ten-year, $250 million contract that includes converting some mixed household waste into compost. Veolia, which specialises in water, waste and energy management, is delivering the solution at a purpose-built $100 million waste treatment facility at Woodlawn, near Goulburn. Under the new contract, Veolia will process over 140 thousand tonnes of waste per annum on behalf of the five Northern Sydney councils, together with another six Southern Sydney councils. Lane Cove Council’s General Manager, Craig Wrightson, says that around 42% of general domestic bin waste from Lane Cove is now being processed to Craig Wrightson, GM make compost. This Lane Cove Council compost is then being used to remediate a disused mine site. The remaining waste goes to landfill on the same site. However, in the next 18 months, the percentage of waste that can be recycled is expected to increase following the introduction of an additional new process that converts the residual waste material unsuitable for composting into a fuel source that could replace fossil fuel in industrial applications. “When this new stage becomes available, we expect around 83% of our household waste being processed will be transformed into useable materials,” says Wrightson. “This is in addition to Council’s other recycling services that are in place for paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, metals and garden organics.”
Remediating the Woodlawn site Veolia operate a number of landfill sites around Australia. Their purchase of a disused copper/ lead and zinc mine at Woodlawn required them to rehabilitate 4 I THE VILLAGE OBSERVER I NO. 268 I NOVEMBER 2017
The Waste Alliance Council at Veolia’s site in Woodlawn. L to R: Barry Smith, General Manager, Hunter's Hill Council; Jude Colechin, Senior Coordinator Resource Recovery, Ryde Council; George Dedes, Acting General Manager, Ryde Council; David Roberts, Manager Environment, Willoughby Council; Craig Wrightson, General Manager, Lane Cove Council; and Janine Ricketts, Project Coordinator, Lane Cove Council.
“Around 42% of general domestic bin waste from Lane Cove is now being processed to make compost. In the next 18 months, around 83% our household waste will be transformed into useable materials.” Craig Wrightson, Lane Cove Council
the site, which extends over 6000 hectares. The compost that is produced from the facility is carefully monitored by the EPA to ensure that it is of the quality required so that the site can be restored back to agricultural land over the course of the next decade.
Councils working with industry to design the best solution According to Mark Taylor, General Manager of NSW Resource Recovery at
Veolia, it was the local metropolitan councils coming together that provided the volumes necessary for Veolia to develop a viable business case for building Mark Taylor, GM the required - NSW Resource infrastructure. Recovery, Veolia Aust & NZ “Although Australia has plenty of mine sites in need of remediation, a viable business case requires a contracted supply of waste. “With waste management, different parts of Australia have different drivers. For NSW, a State Government imposed levy of $138/ tonne on top of the cost of landfill has meant that alternative waste treatment options are cost comparable and therefore being actively explored. Other states have either lower or less expensive levies, so the regulatory environment tends to influence the decisions being made.” Veolia’s new Woodlawn treatment facility has no existing capacity to take waste from additional customers, but does have approvals to expand. With a
