How Sydney's OS Passenger Terminal slashed its waste costs

Veolia has delivered a solution to Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal that has cut weekly waste collections by almost 66%.

The Port Authority of NSW turned to Veolia to help reduce waste operations at the Terminal, which has only one small shared garbage room to deal with the waste from its three restaurants.

The Veolia team responded to the problem by creating a custom-designed solution that was compact enough to fit in the room, consisting of a 10 m hook compactor unit and a baler for cardboard.

“It’s not unusual for waste rooms to be included as an afterthought in commercial buildings, so our team has mastered the ability to develop creative solutions for difficult waste problems,” said Veolia’s NSW Environmental Services Manager, Brett Jones.

“We worked with our supplier to design a bespoke unit that could fit within the constraints of the site. This compactor can accept up to 3.5 tonnes of waste at a time, which has made an enormous difference to how often it needs to be collected.

“Previously, the Terminal’s general waste was collected twice a day and cardboard was a daily service,” Jones explained. Thanks to the new compactor and baler, general waste now only has to be collected once a week and cardboard bales three times a week.

“That’s a reduction of 17 truck movements every week, or 884 truck movements every year,” Jones said.

According to the Port Authority of NSW, the installation of the new compactor and baler has translated into a 50% reduction in waste operation costs at the Terminal, furthering the Authority’s ambition to embed sustainable practices across its business.

Jones said the compactor and baler for the Overseas Passenger Terminal is just one of the many solutions that Veolia can design to help businesses large and small meet their sustainability goals.

“As a company with a global footprint, we understand that there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all model to reduce waste and improve the sustainability of any enterprise and are always prepared to develop creative solutions,” he said.

“Whether we deploy new technology like the bespoke compactor, a dashboard to monitor waste in real time to the see the immediate impact of sustainability changes, or develop streamlined systems to make recycling and resource recovery easier, Veolia has a multitude of unique solutions to help everyone, from a small business right up to an ASX-listed company, meet and surpass their sustainability targets.”

Image credit: iStock.com/zetter