New facility to turn Pilbara's mining waste into recyclables

Transpacific has begun earthworks at a new $17 million recycling and waste management facility in Western Australia. The 10 ha site will be built on Ngarluma country on Warlu Way, Karratha, under a commercial land use agreement with the Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation.

The occasion was marked with a sod-turning ceremony attended by Transpacific’s new managing director for its subsidiary company Cleanaway, Jack Perko; and the CEO of Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation, Paul Stenson. Perko said the ceremony was designed to thank stakeholders for their continued support.

“The sod-turning ceremony celebrates the visible beginning of a new milestone for Transpacific; a facility with the capabilities and expertise to offer a truly integrated and holistic waste and recycling management service for the Karratha market,” he said.

“The construction of this facility provides a strong and stable foothold into the local market, growing our reach and capabilities to process large-scale commercial and industrial waste in a safe and cost-efficient manner.”

Jack Perko and Paul Stenson.

To be built by property and construction group Pindan, the facility will include:

• a weighbridge
• a 460 m² administration and operations office
• a bioremediation area
• a truck maintenance workshop
• a tank farm
• a purpose-built dangerous goods bunded area along with a bunded slab for quarantine materials,
• a solid waste sorting shed.

The site has the potential to process up to:

• 20,000 tonnes of waste oil and packages liquid wastes per year
• 10,000 tonnes of solid waste (including oil filters, rags, fluoro tubes, drums and general recyclables such as cardboard, paper, plastic and metals) for aggregation and recycling per year
• 10,000 tonnes of waste (including contaminated soils) per year that can be fixated or bioremediated on site to allow for safe disposal.

The facility is intended to ensure local construction and demolition waste can be processed closer to where it is being generated, thereby reducing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with transporting the waste approximately 1200 km to Perth. In addition, Perko said the facility will see the employment of 35 local people with expertise in collecting, processing and managing solid waste and recycling; commercial and industrial waste; as well as liquid and hazardous waste.

Perko said the facility should be open by the end of the year