Waste exchange program targets significant industrial hub

Parramatta and Auburn City Councils are encouraging businesses in one of Sydney’s most significant industrial hubs to take part in a new waste exchange program designed to reduce landfill and enhance inter-business community relationships.

Businesses within the suburbs of Camellia, Rosehill, Clyde, Granville and Silverwater in the Duck River catchment are being invited to attend the second of two business workshops on 19 November to have input into finalising the design of the program.

Parramatta and Auburn City Councils have engaged the Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) to develop the program, which aims to prevent commercial and industrial waste streams such as food waste, packaging waste, wooden pallets and e-waste going to landfill, by developing systems for re-use and recovery.

The first initiative of its kind in the area, the waste exchange will provide participating businesses with cost-effective opportunities to recover, re-use and recycle resources from waste streams of other businesses.

“The Camellia and Silverwater industrial precincts provide significant and valuable resources to the NSW economy and society and, through this program, will now provide useful resources to one other,” said the Lord Mayor of Parramatta, Cr Paul Garrard.

“This program will not only have environmental benefits, it will also benefit businesses in the Duck River catchment [by helping them] achieve financial, social and environmental sustainability as well as helping them achieve positive environmental goals,” he said.

Encompassing an area of about 39 km², the Duck River catchment is home to more than 600 businesses including Rosehill racecourse and the Shell Clyde refinery, the longest operating oil refinery in Australia.

Representatives from 18 businesses took part in the first business workshop on 20 August, which encouraged businesses with an interest in a waste exchange to share experiences to date and scope possibilities for future waste exchange in the local area.

Auburn Council Mayor Hicham Zraika said businesses’ attendance and input at the second business workshop would be invaluable - even if they had not participated in the first one.

The waste exchange program is part of the councils’ business sustainability program, a collaboration between Parramatta and Auburn City Councils, with funding from the NSW Environment Trust, helping businesses in the Duck River catchment achieve financial, social and environmental sustainability.

The second business workshop will be held at Dooleys, Silverwater Road, Silverwater, on Thursday 19 November from 10 am-1 pm.

Interested businesses can contact Wendy Read, Project Manager - Business Sustainability on 9806 5419 or email wread@parracity.nsw.gov.au.