Waste treatment plant

SITA Environmental Solutions’ Advanced Waste Treatment (SAWT) plant at Elizabeth Drive, Kemps Creek, NSW, was officially opened in March. The plant will be receiving waste from Liverpool and Penrith residents.

It will have the capacity to process 134,000 tonnes of waste annually. Of the waste stream entering the plant, up to 78% will be diverted from landfill, recovered and recycled for beneficial use.

Liverpool City Council reported that the SAWT will lift the percentage of the overall household waste recycling rate from 16 to more than 80%. Prior to using the facility, all its household garbage went to landfill — with the new plant it will recycle about 68% of that garbage. Council will also be recycling 100% of paper, metals, plastics and green waste.

Penrith City Council is introducing a domestic waste organics collection service, where fruit and vegetable scraps, meat and bones, garden clippings and prunings will be collected each week. The plant is designed to receive up to 40,000 tonnes of this waste from Penrith, with the initial throughput estimated at 33,000 tonnes. With the addition of this organics service, about 60% of urban household waste will be either recycled or composted into high-grade product. The composted organics will be used for a number of beneficial projects, including improving and maintaining Penrith Council’s parks, gardens and playing fields.

The AWT process converts organic waste from the residual waste stream (Liverpool) and also clean, source-separated organics (Penrith) into compost and mulch products, and recovers valuable resources such as aluminium, steel, plastic and glass.

Liverpool Council’s specific-use compost can be used for land rehabilitation, forestry and broadacre agriculture.

The plant is expected to be fully operational by late July.