Rubbish revolution around the corner

Lord Mayor Clover Moore MP said Councillors would vote on publicly exhibiting the City’s draft waste strategy on Monday night.

“To become more sustainable, we simply must look at new ways of dealing with waste. One critical way is to move away from the traditional method of dumping waste in landfill,” the Lord Mayor said.

“Automated systems are already used in cities across Europe and Asia and they have been proven to work.

“While they look just like a typical apartment building garbage chute, the big difference is the chutes are vacuum sealed and instead of emptying into open bins in the basement, the rubbish is sucked down to a central collection point, where it can be collected.”

The automated system for large apartment buildings will give residents a 24-hour, seven day a week service for recyclable and general waste.

Rubbish will be collected automatically from buildings and even from street rubbish bins along the vacuum tube routes, which means fewer trucks in the inner city and less disturbance for residents.

The interim waste strategy aims to reduce waste, maximise resource recovery, find solutions for hazardous waste, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provide cleaner streets and integrate waste, water and energy infrastructure.

Three quarters of residents in the City of Sydney, Australia’s highest density urban environment, live in apartment buildings.

By 2030, workers, visitors and a projected 260,000 residents are expected to produce 20% more rubbish. But landfill will be more expensive as existing sites fill up.

The City is two years ahead of schedule, already meeting its 2014 target of diverting two thirds of waste from landfill. This has been achieved by sending all 40,000 tonnes of household rubbish to advanced waste treatment facilities to remove recyclables and produce compost.