MBT facility under construction at eco-precinct

Community and industry partners joined together last week at the Woodlawn Eco-precinct, located near Goulburn in southern NSW, for the ground breaking of a new facility which will help close the loop on Sydney’s residual waste.

The multimillion-dollar mechanical and biological treatment (MBT) facility will utilise resource recovery technology to extract organic content from mixed waste streams received from across Sydney, which will be used to produce compost for on-site mine rehabilitation. In fact, the turned soil which marked the start of construction will be remediated using compost produced by the facility once completed.

The MBT facility will further enhance the resource recovery capabilities of the Woodlawn Eco-precinct, which already accepts around 20% of Sydney’s putrescible waste and is recognised as an example of best practice landfill technology. The site has so far used 4.6 million tonnes of waste from across Sydney to generate green electricity, and currently exports enough power to supply over 4000 households a year.

Resource management company Veolia has been assisting with work at Woodlawn, with NSW group general manager Ben Sullivan saying, “The construction of the mechanical biological treatment facility is an important stage in our sustainability efforts at Woodlawn, including rehabilitating the former Woodlawn mine site.

“The facility supports existing source-separated initiatives, such as kerbside recycling, by recovering energy and resources from the residual waste stream.”

This new stage will deliver further local environmental, social and economic benefits, such as increased renewable energy production, further rehabilitation of the former mine site, support for local community groups through the voluntarily Veolia Mulwaree Trust and an increase in local job opportunities.