Plans for a $400 million ‘world-first’ recycling plant in the Hunter Valley will be unveiled at a sustainability conference in Newcastle.
The proposed Hunter Industrial Ecology Park will see more than 12 companies come together to better use resources and minimise waste and energy.
If given the green light to build on 40 hectares of land at Weston, near Kurri Kurri, it could employ more than 400 people and recover up to a million tonnes of waste each year.
Industrial Ecology chairman Garbis Simonian says more than 70 organisations are attending the conference to hear about the plans.
“What we’re trying to do is create a group of recycling technologies or the infrastructure that can handle a whole range of wastes that are produced in the Hunter,” he said.
“Household waste but also the local industrial waste and what we’re trying to do is set up a model that can be replicated around Australia,” he said.
Mr Simonian says companies are already interested in recycling waste at the proposed Hunter Industrial Ecology Park.
“There are lots of industrial parks, some of them cooperate with each other,” he said.
“This one is exclusively for recycling businesses and what we try to do is, we’re not going to have two of the same thing.
“We’re going to have one each of the different processes and we’re going to set it out so that they complement each other so the materials move freely.”
