Lismore mayor, Jenny Dowell, and Lismore MP, Thomas George, turned the first sod in the construction process for the new $3.65m Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and glass processing plant in Lismore nine months ago. it was completed this week.
The facility will process and recycle around 15,000 tonnes of recyclables each year. The recyclables will be sorted into components before being sent away to be recycled. The glass processing plant will implode the glass into glass sand, which will then be sent to the local quarry, where it will be put into asphalt and road base for the area.
Lismore City Council (LCC)’s funding partners in the project are Australian Packaging Covenant (APC) and the Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF) for the glass processing plant. Part of the APC funding is derived from the state government, which itself contributed significant additional funding.
Mayor Dowell commented, “Our community recycles at a very high rate with relatively low levels of spoilage. It just didn’t feel right that we were paying for someone else to take our materials away when it is a valuable resource that we could benefit from. We now own the shed structure, which belonged to Triton, and it is an ideal location for the MRF and the glass crushing facility. There have been previous problems with blending different coloured glass, but we will now be able to combine all coloured glass, including ceramics and kitchenware and use that on probably our most important resource, our roads, on which we spend around a third of our budget. This is a win for our environment, a win for council finances and also for local disability employment. We will be putting out an expression of interest for disability employment groups so we will have a social win as well."
The current waste facility in Lismore recovers and recycles nearly 70% of material that comes through the gate and has six entries in the Local Government NSW Excellence Awards. The MRF is a specialised plant that sorts, separates and prepares recyclables to be made into new products. Lismore City Council has developed their MRF as a regional hub and is looking at bringing on board the Richmond Valley Council and Ballina Shire Council. The glass processing plant will be able to recycle all used glass and crockery, which will also be crushed into sand under the ‘Glass – 2 – Sand’ initiative for blending into road base and asphalt.
APC chief executive officer, Stan Moore said, “Collaboration is the key, with Lismore City Council working with its community, and the plan to work with Richmond Valley Council and the Ballina Shire Council on this regional initiative, combines the actions and efforts of individuals to contribute to an overall outcome. Collaboration has seen the packaging recycling rate increase from 39% in 2003 to 64% in 2013. Over this same period we have seen a reduction of 37% in packaging going to landfill despite the increase in consumption.
“The integrated approach to the development of this facility is far sighted and commendable. The glass recovery and reuse is exciting, recovering glass and turning it back into sand and using it as a sand replacement makes sense and is part of the new way of thinking about the circular economy. The APC has been a supporting partner in this project and we are continually looking to invest in worthwhile projects such as this to increase recovery of packaging and resource management.”
