KVCCB Articles
The Valley Voice - March 2022
Why Don’t We Have Green Waste Bins?
It’s a good question and one that we hear often. The short answer is that we are not going to get green waste bins and that’s a good thing! Read on to find out why.
Green waste is primarily an issue for residential property owners as rural property owners have the opportunity to manage green waste themselves. The solution selected by Shoalhaven City Council will benefit all ratepayers and the environment.
Council have partnered with a company called Bioelektra Australia, to construct a Resource Recovery Facility next to the existing waste depot at West Nowra. This facility will be Australia’s first plant capable of diverting over 90% of mixed waste from landfill. Everything that you put in your red bin will be processed in this facility. Everything that can be reused or recycled is extracted in one process.
For the process to work efficiently, Council will need you to put your green waste in the red bin. The green waste contains moisture that is required for the 150oC autoclave sterilisation process. Once sterilised, the residue goes through a massive sorting process to extract and separate metals, plastics, glass (which can all be recycled) and biomass which can be used for green energy production. There is very little left to go into landfill.
Like most things, COVID has impacted the original timeframes but stage 2 approval for the project was received on 23 December 2021, so construction should commence in 2022 and the facility will become operational some time after that. Council will provide more information to ratepayers closer to the go-live date.
For those interested in the process, there is a great video available. It is less than 5 minutes long and well worth a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mUoZdMaBQE
To find out more about the project and to read other FAQs, click on the following link: https://getinvolved.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au/rrf
This information was brought to you by the Kangaroo Valley Community Consultative Body – working with the community for a better future. More information on us can be found on our website http://kangaroovalley.nsw.au/kvccb. Our next meeting will be in the Kangaroo Valley Hall on Tue 29 March 2022 at 6:30pm.