A proposal to increase the capacity of City of Newcastle’s new organics processing facility will fast track its ability to accept food scraps by four years, diverting an additional 24,000 tonnes of waste from landfill.
A report, yet to be submitted, will recommend expanding the facility’s capacity to 50,000 tonnes per annum at the initial construction stage, which would allow it to process both garden and food organics from its first year of operation.
The fully enclosed facility, which will be constructed at the Summerhill Waste Management Centre, uses new technology to process the waste into compost for reuse.
A report will be tabled at this month’s Council meeting, recommending an expansion of the facility’s capacity.
City of Newcastle currently receives around 23,000 tonnes of garden organic waste at Summerhill each year, which is then transported more than 90km to Ravensworth for further processing.
There is also expected to be a significant increase in organics received once residents take advantage of the new collection service.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the facility would deliver a more sustainable approach to organic waste and resource recovery in line with community expectations.
“This facility would allow processing of more than double the organic waste that we currently receive, and importantly, it enables us to process and transform that waste into compost for reuse instead of sending it all to landfill,” Nelmes said.
The facility will also aim to aid the councils efforts of achieving the requirements of the NSW Government’s Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy 2041, which requires local councils to deliver food and garden organics collection by 2030.
The development application for the organics facility is expected to go on public exhibition in mid-2022.
For more information on the proposed facility, click here.
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