More than a dozen Victorian councils have committed their non-recyclable household waste to the Maryvale Energy from Waste (EfW) project, which is the most progressed of its kind in Victoria, to help divert it from landfill.
The project consortium, made up of packaging converter Opal, Veolia ANZ and Masdar Tribe Australia, secured a waste supply agreement with nine Melbourne councils, made up of Bayside City Council, Cardinia Shire Council, City of Casey, City of Greater Dandenong, Frankston City Council, Kingston City Council, Knox City Council, Whitehorse City Council and Yarra Ranges Shire Council.
The state-of-the-art EfW facility will be constructed at Opal Australian Paper’s Maryvale Mill in the Latrobe Valley. Veolia, which already operates 65 EfW facilities around the world and will soon operate the two EfW facilities in Western Australia, will operate and maintain the facility.
South-East Metropolitan Advanced Waste Processing (SEMAWP) is the single entity of the nine councils. SEMAWP’s Board chair and Bayside City Council CEO Mick Cummins said it is a great outcome for residents of the nine councils involved in the project, that began in 2020.
“This advanced waste processing solution provides an alternative to landfill that makes better use of household waste than burying it in the ground and will put items that can’t be reused or recycled to better use,” said Cummins.
The nine councils join Maroondah City Council, which has previously signed an agreement, and Latrobe City Council which has resolved to support the project – while another two councils are in the process of finalising agreements.
Speaking on behalf of the consortium, Veolia ANZ CEO Richard Kirkman said securing the councils’ waste was significant.
“The supply agreements with councils mean the project has reached the waste volumes required to finalise the design and construction costs of the EfW facility, before moving to financial close,” Kirkman said.
“We are excited to have won these waste tenders. It is a testament to their commitment to their local communities and moving to a more sustainable waste management solution compared to landfill.
“Our facility in Maryvale will help Australia reach net zero faster by going beyond just landfilling practices, and managing Victoria’s waste immediately instead of leaving it to future generations to manage.”
The Maryvale EfW facility will provide a sustainable and innovative waste management solution for the councils by recovering energy from their non-recyclable waste to help power the Maryvale Paper Mill.
Diverting the residual waste from landfill will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 270,000 tonnes annually, equivalent to removing 50,000 cars from the road per year.
In line with the circular economy, the Maryvale EfW project is focused on maximising recovery of by-products created during the energy-generating process and identifying value-added ways to recycle and re-use these.
Using world leading technology, by-products will be converted into aggregates for use in construction. By doing so, the facility will target more than 99 per cent diversion of residual waste from landfill.
The EfW facility will bring a new energy industry to Gippsland and is expected to support approximately 500 jobs during the construction phase and an estimated 450 local jobs once operational, including direct and flow-on.
In 2022, an $8 million Bottom Ash Recycling facility had been approved by EPA Victoria, the first of its kind approved for construction in the state, and will be located with the Maryvale EfW facility, at Opal Australian Paper's Maryvale Mill.
In 2023, the project reached a major milestone, signing a multi-million-dollar engineering design agreement with Spanish infrastructure group Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios.
The Victorian government also recently granted the Maryvale project the first Energy from Waste Licence under the state’s Circular Economy laws.
The project is the recipient of a $48.2 million grant from the Australian government under the Modern Manufacturing Initiative.
