Veolia recently welcomed members of the NSW EPA Board to its Woodlawn Eco-Precinct. The Precinct manages roughly 20 per cent of Sydney’s putrescible waste, using it to generate clean energy for up to 30,000 homes.
Together with Veolia CFO Preet Brar, NSW EPA Chair Rayne de Gruchy and CEO Tracy Mackey inspected the Precinct, a leading example of resource recovery within the state.
“The EPA encourages the waste sector to find innovative solutions that can help us progress to becoming a truly circular economy by finding other end uses for our waste,” Mackey said.
“This is a good example demonstrating what can be done in the waste space, proving these materials are a valuable resource.”
The Woodlawn Eco-Precinct has prioritised sustainable and innovative waste management practices, including seven landfill gas engines that generate seven megawatts of clean energy from the bioreactor landfill, powering up to 11,000 homes.
The precinct also utilises mechanical and biological treatment, which extracts organic content from mixed waste to produce a product for environmental remediation of the onsite tailings dams.
Woodlawn also captures waste heat from energy production and uses it for fish farming and hydroponic horticulture, with a solarfarm harnessing energy to produce 2.5 megawatts of clean energy each year.
According to Brar, an essential component of Veolia’s social licence to operate is open and transparent relationships with the community and key stakeholders including the NSW EPA.
“Having the opportunity to regularly engage the NSW EPA at Woodlawn, and indeed all our sites within the state, is critical to our role in developing leading solutions that minimise waste-related environmental impacts, whilst returning the value of waste in the form of energy, aquaculture and land remediation,” he said.
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