Limestone Coast waste and resource recovery infrastructure plan
Published by the Limestone Coast Local Government Association, which acknowledges Rawtec’s work in completing the document. Covers seven councils across 21,000 square kilometres. March 2019.
Summary published
Seven councils, 65,000 people, 21,000 square kilometres, and about 250,000 tonnes of waste and recyclables a year moving through the region.
The plan found the region has enough organics processing and landfill capacity for the volumes it expects.
The recommended investment is in glass, plastics, metals and cardboard: $4.3 million over ten years.
Infrastructure investment over ten years
Average diversion, ranging 18% to 46% by council
Key pieces of existing infrastructure, 18 council-owned
Jobs per 10,000 tonnes diverted, against 2.8 to landfill
What the region already has
The existing network, diversion rates and kerbside tonnages
34 key pieces of waste and resource recovery infrastructure, 18 of them council-owned. Two major organics processing facilities, four landfills with one council-owned, a materials recovery facility, 15 transfer stations and resource recovery centres, and two container deposit facilities.
Mount Gambier 46%, Tatiara 44%, Naracoorte Lucindale and Wattle Range 42%, Grant 28%, Robe 21% and Kingston 18%. Regional average 42%.
About 22,700 tonnes a year at the kerb: 13,198 tonnes of general waste, 5,140 of organics and 4,320 of comingled recycling. Council-managed facilities handle another 34,000 tonnes.
The levy, and whether capacity is enough
The landfill levy on kerbside general waste cost the councils $581,000 in 2017-18, projected to $660,000 in 2018-19 and $680,000 in 2019-20.
There is enough capacity in the region’s organics facilities and landfills for expected future volumes. The plan says the focus should be maximising diversion of the remaining recyclables, not building more capacity.
Jobs and contamination
Six full-time equivalent jobs for every 10,000 tonnes diverted, against 2.8 for every 10,000 tonnes landfilled. The planned investment is expected to produce about four full-time roles in operation.
Comingled recycling contamination runs from 3% in Tatiara to 16% in Mount Gambier on the 2016 audit.
Where the $4.3 million goes
The largest item. The plan says it needs a detailed business case.
A shared mobile steel baler at $320,000, static cardboard balers at $150,000 for three small units or $350,000 for a large one, and a glass crusher at $90,000.
Weighbridges at two transfer stations, $300,000. A comingled recycling compactor, $158,000. A new transfer station at Beachport, $500,000.
New kerbside bins as the population grows, $177,000, and an organics bin rollout at $427,000.
Councils are partway through about $835,000 of upgrades, and industry has recently spent around $900,000 with a further $1.5 million planned. The $4.3 million sits on top of that.
Seven options were assessed and deliberately not recommended as priorities, because of high cost relative to current practice or the difficulty of securing end markets: plastics and tyres to roads, paper and cardboard remanufacturing, a single-council materials recovery facility, small-scale energy from waste, anaerobic digestion and biochar, and a hazardous waste treatment plant. The plan also excludes replacing existing equipment at end of life and ongoing maintenance, and its technical appendices are not public because they contain commercially sensitive information.
Related reports
Other regional infrastructure and strategy work.
The full plan sets out short, medium and long-term actions against each priority.
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