Advanced waste treatment plant opened in Western Sydney

SITA Environmental Solutions’ Advanced Waste Treatment (SAWT) plant at Elizabeth Drive, Kemps Creek, was officially opened by the Minister for Climate Change and the Environment and Deputy Premier, Carmel Tebbutt.

The plant will have a capacity to process 134,000 tonnes of waste annually. Of the waste stream entering the plant, up to 78% will be diverted from landfill, dramatically changing the carbon footprint of Penrith and Liverpool residents, as materials are recovered and recycled for beneficial re-use.

The greenhouse emissions avoided by recycling organic and other waste at the new plant — rather than letting it decompose in landfill — is 75,000 tonnes, the equivalent of taking 19,000 cars off the road each year.

”The most critical decision that local governments make about greenhouse gas reduction is what they do with their waste, which can account for twice the emissions profile of their motor vehicle fleet,” said SITA’s Managing Director Eric Gernath.

“Environmentally committed councils are looking at keeping organics out of landfill through the employment of an advanced waste treatment plant or the separation of organics, through a collection service and associated compost facility,” Gernath said.

One of the effects of the plant is that Liverpool City Council reports that the SAWT will lift the percentage of the overall household waste recycling rate from 16% to more than 80%.

"Prior to using this new facility, all household garbage went directly to landfill and with the new waste plant we’ll recycle about 68% of that garbage. Council will also recycle 100% of paper, metal, plastics and green waste,” said Liverpool City Council Mayor Wendy Waller.

Penrith City Council is introducing a domestic waste organics collection service, where fruit and vegetable scraps, meat and bones, garden clippings and prunings will be collected each week from approximately 50,000 households in the city. The plant is designed to receive up to 40,000 t of this waste from Penrith, with the initial throughput estimated at 33,000 t.

“With the addition of an organics service, about 60% of urban household waste will be either recycled or composted into a high-grade product, reducing the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 18,000 carbon equivalent tonnes per annum,” said Councillor Jim Aitken, Mayor of Penrith.

The composted organics from Penrith can be used in a number of beneficial projects. Some of the compost will be used to improve and maintain council parks, gardens and playing fields throughout the city.

The AWT process uses proven technology and offers holistic solutions for councils, converting organic waste from the residual waste stream (Liverpool) and also clean, source-separated organics (Penrith) into compost and mulch products, and recovering valuable resources such as aluminium, steel, plastic and glass.

Liverpool Council's specific-use compost can be used for land rehabilitation, forestry and broadacre agriculture.

"One of our biggest problems in managing waste across the country is that 8.5 million tonnes of degradable organic waste goes into landfill nationally every year. That organic material then breaks down anaerobically producing methane, which has more than 20 times the global warming effect as carbon dioxide,” Gernath said.

“Australian landfills now generate 15 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year. Keeping organics out of landfill via AWTs and organic composting is the way we need to be heading.

“This plant puts Penrith and Liverpool councils at the forefront of sustainability in Australia,” Gernath said.

The SAWT plant was approved by the NSW government last year after a rigorous assessment process. The new plant will begin to be commissioned in a month, with waste processing then ramped up until the plant is fully operational by late July.