Cleanaway has spent more than $70 million to deliver a best-in-class material recovery facility (MRF) in Western Sydney to cater to the needs of New South Wales’ growing population and the increased awareness of the importance of recycling.
Built in conjunction with property investment and funds management group Charter Hall, and the backing of foundation partners Blacktown City Council, the MRF aims to improve the volume and quality of resources recovered from the state’s recycling.
It will process up to 120,000 tonnes of residential and commercial waste a year, achieving up to 99.5 per cent purity of plastics recovery – enabling downstream processing facilities to maximise the quality of new containers.
Danny Lemme, Cleanaway’s Resource Recovery Manager, says purity is one of the biggest achievements within the facility.
“The more Australia pivots to domestic recycling, the more we must focus on quality and purity,” he says.
“Contaminated material can degrade the quality of a recycled product, making it less valuable and potentially unusable. The cleaner the material, the better it can be reprocessed into new products.
“The screening and optical technology we have installed will help us achieve our purity rates, ensuring a reliable pathway to market and circularity of the beneficial product.”
Forming part of Cleanaway’s NSW Resource Recovery Network, the Western Sydney MRF recovers cardboard and mixed paper, glass, aluminium and steel, natural and coloured high-density polyethylene (HDPE), coloured and clear polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP) and mixed plastics.
All recyclables undergo a manual pre-sort to remove oversized, hazardous, or incorrect items. They are then separated into their respective output streams using advanced technologies such as ballistic separators, optical sorting, eddy currents, magnets and wind sifting.
“While optical sorting is not new, what sets this MRF apart is the installation of the latest TOMRA technology with 2D and 3D shape recognition and colour separation to separate fibre from the stream and categorise plastics into HDPE, PET, PP, and mixed,” Danny says. “For a circular economy, the input product for recycling has to be of a high quality to achieve the right output product.”
While Cleanaway is leading the way in recycling and resource recovery, it also recognises the importance of safety and protection of the environment.
The waste, recycling, and resource recovery industry has been rocked by an alarming rise in fires primarily caused by incorrect battery disposal.
In 2024, the Australian Council of Recycling released research that suggested there were between 10,000 and 12,000 battery-related fires across waste and recycling streams in Australia over the past 12 months.
Fires pose a significant risk to workers, as well as damaging or destroying infrastructure, leaving otherwise recoverable product at risk of being landfilled.
Cleanaway’s Western Sydney MRF sets the industry benchmark for fire-resistant infrastructure, featuring a fully compartmentalised building design and a detection, suppression, and containment system providing coverage above and below the plant.
Supported by 1.1 million litres of onsite stored water and a sealed underground containment system, Cleanaway ensures that any water used to extinguish a fire cannot leave the site and damage the environment.
“The industry is trying to respond to the prevalence and intensity of fires, particularly lithium battery-related fires,” Danny says. “It’s important that the industry, where it has the opportunity, builds resilient infrastructure, because ultimately not doing so puts resource recovery outcomes at risk.
“The resilience of this facility, from a fire control perspective, is unparalleled. It’s got VESDA (very early smoke detection apparatus) systems; it’s got AI thermal cameras; it’s even got oversized bunkers to keep material separate from each other.
“There are no shortcuts. This facility sets a standard to which future material recovery facilities should be built.”
VESDA is a sensitive smoke detection system that continuously samples air to detect even minute traces of smoke, providing an early warning of potential fire.
Danny says it’s important for Cleanaway to invest in protecting not only the plant and its staff but also the environment and local communities. Under its 2024 Reconciliation Action Plan, Cleanaway is focused on increasing awareness, understanding and partnerships with First Nations communities of the lands on which it operates.
Recognising the site’s heritage, Cleanaway has partnered with local First Nations artists to include a mural on two fire tanks at the new MRF.
The Wawarrawarri Darug people, who lived along Eastern Creek, practiced sustainability and cared for the waterways, recognising the interconnectedness of nature and the need to preserve it for future generations. Danny says the mural serves as a conversation starter and demonstrates a dedication to growing cultural awareness.
“This was a really great way of partnering with First Nations people and giving them a space in a really important state-of-the-art facility that is our modern-day way of giving back to the land and creating sustainability,” he says.
“We are dedicated to making a sustainable future possible together.”
For more information, visit: www.cleanaway.com.au
