Shire embraces high-tech waste processing
13 Sept 2020
Severnside energy Recovery Centre UK: MWRRG image
The local Mornington Peninsula Shire (MPS) is on a pathway to endorsing Advanced Waste Technology (AWT) that will enable the closure of the Rye tip, turn food and green household waste into agricultural fertiliser and residual household waste into energy.
State Government statutory body Metropolitan Waste Resource and Recovery Group (MWRRG) has approached MPS, along with 15 other councils in the south-eastern region, seeking a willingness to enter into a collective agreement to procure new infrastructure to process household rubbish.
As part of MWRRGs target to divert 80% of waste from landfill fly 2030, strategic planners at Victorian state level have engaged local councils to get involved with long-term waste solutions in preparation of landfill closures. And the long-term solution is investing in AWT.
This project is the biggest tender ever undertaken for a new waste treatment plant, which is expected to attract investment of up to $650 million.
Last month, MWRRG announced a short-list of 3 operators who will work closely with the 16 councils, including MPS, over the next 10 months in the tender process. They are Veolia, Sacyr and Remondis Group of Companies. It is hoped contracts will be awarded in 2022, and construction commencing in 2023.
MWRRG says the contract model adopted by councils will determine their level of control over costs, technology, location and performance, including environmental and social outcomes.
It also says the multi-stage procurement process has been designed to minimise risks, and will adhere to a probity plan that promotes transparency and reduces risk during and after the procurement stage.
Councils not in agreement with the preferred tenderer will have the option to withdraw at the end of 2021.
So what is AWT?
AWT, or Advanced Waste Technology, is technology that transforms waste to energy by producing electricity, heat or gas. It is also technology that can process organic material into fertiliser. Approved by the EPA prior to being built, at the location that does not impact the environment and community, the facility is expected to use sophisticated emissions control equipment to minimise pollution.
Waste-to-energy facilities, also called bio-energy plants, have been operating for decades in parts of Europe, North America and Asia. Referred to as the “Circular Economy”, energy is captured from waste materials that cannot be recycled or processed elsewhere.
Waste Treatment Technology at Dandenong South: Sacyr Image
AWT facilities may operate using one or more types of processing: Anaerobic Digestion, a biological process that produces gas from organic waste; Combustion where waste is burned to produce heat, then steam to run turbines to produce electricity; and Gasification where waste is heated, not burned, to release gases that can be used in a case engine to produce electricity.
In all three processes, ash and residues are sent to landfill. Metals found in the ash can be extracted and used by industry.
The Mornington Peninsula Shire says it has been a ‘leader in best practice waste management for over a decade’ and that its most significant target over the next 10 years will be diverting 100% of household waste from landfill.
MPS should be commended for undertaking a variety of programs that encourage ratepayers to improve their management of waste separation, and reductions of excessive consumption and wastefulness. However, the fact remains the shire continues to bury 33,000 tonnes of waste to landfill annually, 52% of which is organic waste.
At the Mornington Peninsula Shire council meeting on 26 August 2020, councillors endorsed the new “Beyond Zero Waste Strategy 2030” together with its “Single-Use Plastic Policy”.
The “Strategy” allows for a FOGO program (Food Organics and Garden Organics) to commence on the Mornington Peninsula Shire in July 2021. It will start off as an opt-in service with caddies being distributed in June 2021.
The document presented to council for adoption, says a universal service (for every ratepayer) will be rolled out in 2023 pending the contamination rate. However, this is at odds with the draft document which stated “when 65% of households have opted-in with FOGO, the switch to a universal service, including rural properties, will be evaluated”.
It is also unclear where the FOGO collection will be processed or what the cost will be for the householder. If this decision is yet to be made, should MPS be examining the option of constructing a local purpose-built processing plant given there are so many agricultural businesses on its doorstep?
Transporting organic waste to a processing plant outside the Mornington Peninsula, only to be trucked back as fertiliser for our market gardens and farming properties, does not seem the most cost effective option.
Neighbouring council, City of Frankston, commenced its FOGO kerbside collection in October 2019. Their opt-in service currently requires an annual fee of $145.50 from ratepayers to have all kitchen food and garden waste collected fortnightly. The collection is then transported to the new processing plant in Dandenong South, opened in May 2019.
With a capacity to process 120,000 tonnes of organic waste into approximately 50,000 tonnes of high grade compost annually, the Sacyr indoor composting facility is one of the most advanced of its type in Victoria. Servicing 8 councils in the south-eastern suburbs, including City of Frankston, the plant recycles organic waste from a population of 1.2 million people.
The Mornington Peninsula Shire is not part of this contract.