WA City of Cockburn accept waste supply tender

The City of Cockburn has accepted a tender to supply its general waste to HZI consortium’s waste to energy (WtE) plant for the next 20 years.

The deal will begin from 2021 and will be processed at a proposed facility WtE in East Rockingham, WA.

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Under the agreement, waste will be delivered from kerbside collection to the plant at an estimated cost of $3.47 million for the first year.

This represents a considerable cost saving on the current arrangements for waste disposal, according to the City of Cockburn.

The Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council has accepted the consortium as the preferred waste disposal tenderer.

Moving grate combustion technology is planned to convert energy from general waste and turn it into electricity, while also producing ash by-products that could potentially be used in road construction.

City of Cockburn Waste Manager Lyall Davieson said the waste supply agreement represented significant savings for ratepayers and would divert greater volumes of waste from landfill.

“Waste disposed at landfill attracts an ever-increasing state government landfill levy, which is currently $65 per tonne, but this levy does not apply to WtE,” Mr Davieson said.

“The state government has determined that no further landfills will be approved on the Swan Coastal Plain,” he said.

“When existing landfills reach capacity, the city, along with many other metropolitan local governments, will have to transport its general waste to regional or inland rural areas, a costly proposition that would also increase the city’s transport carbon emissions.

“The WtE process is environmentally favourable to landfill in that valuable materials are converted for energy production. There is also potential for the city to purchase the electricity produced by processing the waste.”

Mr Davieson said the initiative will build on the weekly recycling and green waste services provided by the city.

“Sending the city’s waste to the New Energy WtE facility will help the city reach an overall waste diversion rate from landfill of 85 per cent for all its household waste streams, well above the Waste Authority’s target,” Mr Davieson said.

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