Four circular economy solutions will be pursued by the City of Greater Bendigo as it prepares for life after landfill.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Eaglehawk Landfill is due to reach capacity this year and will evolve into a full-time transfer station in 2023.
Council plans to use circular economy solutions to manage the region's waste and resources.
Council's resource, recovery and education manager Brooke Pearce said expressions of interest that offered waste solutions were called for in 2020. Forty submissions were received with 22 shortlisted before council closely considered 11 submissions.
"From these, four circular economy solutions were shortlisted for assessment and financial and environmental due diligence," Ms Pearce said.
"The proposed solutions were then assessed by an expert panel consisting of Greater Bendigo staff and independent advisors. The City also received independent feedback on the tender process and specifications.
"However progressing any of these commercial arrangements will be subject to a Council resolution and Victorian and Local Government regulatory requirements."
The solutions include establishing two new sites to manage waste.
One will be a local composting site within 25 kilometres of Bendigo that will process more than 17,000 tonnes of food and garden organics each year. It will aim to reduce emissions by 16.3 per cent compared to current kerbside organics disposal arrangements.
A small-scale, modular energy from waste plant will also be established and will use pyrolysis and gasification to convert approximately 30,000 tonnes of waste per year in to 5,660 tonnes per year of biochar.
Gas form the processes will be converted to electricity and exported to the grid, resulting in a 78 per cent reduction in emissions in comparison to sending the waste to landfill.
A third solution will see soft plastics processes into a road-based additive to be used in roads in Greater Bendigo. The work will be done by a Melbourne-based manufacturer and will see in a 392 per cent reduction in emissions versus the current landfilling of soft plastics.
Finally, there will be a research and development testing phase of a small-scale Bendigo based manufacturing start up to recover a small portion of plastics from the co-mingled recycling stream.
The plastics will be used for the manufacturing of structural engineering products (to replace steel products) and could result in a more than 40 per cent reduction in emissions compared to the existing recycling route for the plastic.
Council's commitment move to a circular economy follows the Victorian Government's Recycling Victoria Policy and council's new Climate Change and Environment Strategy 2021-2026.
"By putting circular economy solutions in place, there will be no impact on the Greater Bendigo community when the Eaglehawk Landfill reaches capacity and becomes a transfer station," Ms Pearce said. "In fact, circular economy solutions are proven to be more environmentally and financially better compared to landfill.
"The City's waste system currently struggles to do much with end-of-life materials. However, the creation of circular economy solutions will change how we handle and value our material resources, keep them in use for as long as possible, create local jobs and support local industry.
"With detailed and thorough design to meet the community's disposal needs, and effective recovery of materials, we will be aiming to avoid waste completely and create new opportunities for local industries in Greater Bendigo."
The proposed solutions will be presented to council at its meeting on April 20.
For more on the solutions visit www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/Services/General-Waste-Recycling-and-Organics/Circular-Economy
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Download our app on iOS and Android
- Bookmark bendigoadvertiser.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter @BgoAddy
- Follow us on Instagram @bendigoadvertiser
- Join us on Facebook
- Follow us on Google News