Last week, a notification was broadcast by the Waste Management Association of Australia on behalf of Lake Macquarie City Council (LMCC) in relation to its planned tender for collection and processing of its organic waste. It hopes to commence a three-bin system collecting source separated organics from mid 2012. Newcastle City Council (NCC) is going down the same path, planning to introduce a green waste collection from July this year.
LMCC’s previous long term waste strategy was to participate in a regional solution where all Mixed Solid Waste (MSW) from Maitland, Cessnock, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie LGAs would be delivered to a central point for processing.
The process was modelled to achieve 70% diversion of waste from landfill, generate energy, and in addition to processing 100% of collected domestic waste, would have had capacity to receive and process commercial waste streams.
The delivery of the service was delayed by the complexity of the solution, which at the time of conception would have been regarded as leading edge and unprecedented in Australia. There was also significant difficulty in obtaining assurances from relevant state agencies about regulations that would govern the operation of the plant and the products emanating from the facility.
Finally, the advent of the Global Financial Crisis led to a dramatic and unaffordable increase in the cost of delivering the processing facility.
Since then, LMCC has been working on its Waste Strategy Project, part of which was to investigate the most suitable system for diverting waste from landfill with less than five years operating life remaining at its Awaba site.
While LMCC isn’t providing specifics on the tonnages involved, its bin audits show that around 77% of the contents of MGBs is recyclable, almost 60% of which comprises compostable organics which could account for up to 60,000 tonnes per annum.
LMCC is aiming to exceed the state government’s target of 66% of current waste volumes diverted away from landfill by 2014, although Lake Macquarie households currently divert only 21%.
“We want to meet that 66% and by the time we add food waste we will exceed it, that’s the plan,” LMCC’s Stefanie King told Inside Waste.
Due to the amount of municipal solid waste (which represents around 60% of the waste deposited at Awaba), and the organic fractions within it, solutions that target those particular waste components were key to devising an effective waste strategy.
In February, LMCC decided on source separated organics collection and processing as its preferred system. It is planning to introduce a three-bin collection system to residents, commencing in mid 2012, which will initially take garden organics and in time include kitchen organic waste from its 200,000 residents.
“Lake Macquarie City Council will guarantee the green and food wastes from kerbside bin collections, self delivered green waste and the green waste of biannual kerbside clean up. However, LMCC will not warrant specific tonnages, the processor will receive the volumes as generated in the market,” said King.
In June, potential proponents were invited to a pre-tender information session to assist with the development of procurement documentation for: new bins; collection services; and processing facilities for Lake Macquarie City’s organic waste streams.
King said, “There has been one pre-tender meeting and we have undertaken to have at least one more prior to tender release. In addition, there is the opportunity for one-on-one meetings”.
Community feedback played a significant role in LMCC’s preferred system with 69% of residents choosing the three-bin system for its environmental benefits and better outcomes such as marketable composts etc.
“It’s also a reason for us to try and find a site within the city boundaries [for a processing facility],” said King, “basically the community prefers to deal with its waste within its own boundaries.
When asked about potential collaboration with surrounding regions, King replied, “LMCC does not have any agreements with Newcastle or any other councils regarding this matter. Motivated operators would be expected to have some knowledge of local circumstances in the Lower Hunter and sourcing of additional waste streams may be negotiated at a later stage.
“The waste team of LMCC is regularly in contact with the Newcastle City Council (NCC) waste team regarding various matters due to the proximity of Councils,” she said.
Daniel Ballantyne from NCC said that a joint initiative for waste management was not off the table and that LMCC was only seeking expressions of interest.
NCC is undertaking its own source separated organics collection which is expected to generate around 9-12,000 tonnes of garden organics destined for both onsite treatment at Summerhill landfill and also offsite treatment currently under tender.
“We are moving more to an integrated approach but it’s one step at a time…we’re aiming to have full organics separation sooner rather than later,” said Ballantyne.
“We also have options to maximise landfill that don’t revolve around green waste processing.”
“We’re running a tender like several other landfills for a full satellite positioning set up and we’re going to be driving KPIs precisely around compaction, and including all aspects at the landfill in regard to cover, monitoring cover efforts and weight to volume achievement and compaction efforts,” said Ballantyne, adding there will be a focus on improving compaction.
Ballantyne said the Summerhill landfill site in Newcastle receives up to 200,000 tonnes of waste from the Lake Macquarie region.
King said, “Lake Macquarie Council does not divert any waste streams to Newcastle’s Summerhill site or to any other landfills. LMCC cannot speak for private operators though”.
LMCC has been able to price away from Awaba a proportion of the C&I and C&D waste that may otherwise have presented there, to other sites such as Summerhill.
