A new $50 million Australian dollars advanced waste treatment plant will establish Western Sydney residents as the most effective recyclers in the state.

The greenhouse emissions avoided by recycling organic and other waste at the new plant – rather than letting it decompose in a landfill – is 75,000 tonnes, the equivalent of taking 19,000 cars off the road each year.

“This advanced waste treatment plant demonstrates Suez Environnement’s capacity to develop and implement a global approach to waste management. Green house gases will be reduced, compost will be created through organic waste treatment, recovery of resources such as aluminium and glass and new employment possibilities will also improve local economy,” said Christophe Cros, SITA France’s chief executive officer and senior executive vice-president in charge of Waste Europe for Suez Environnement.

”The most critical decision that local governments make about greenhouse gas reduction is what they do with their waste, which can account for twice the emissions profile of their motor vehicle fleet”, said SITA’s managing director, Eric Gernath.

“Environmentally committed councils are looking at keeping organics out of landfill through the employment of an Advanced Waste Treatment plant or the separation of organics, through a collection service and associated compost facility”, Gernath said.

One of the dramatic effects of the new plant is that Liverpool City Council reports that the SAWT will lift the percentage of the overall household waste recycling rate from 16% to more than 80%.

Prior to utilising this new facility all household garbage went directly to landfill and with the new waste plant we’ll recycle about 68 percent of that garbage. Council will also recycle 100 percent of paper, metal, plastics and green waste”, said Liverpool city council mayor Wendy Waller.

The new plant will allow NSW families to make a valuable individual contribution to reducing carbon emissions and reducing the carbon footprint of households.

Penrith City Council is introducing a new domestic waste organics collection service, where fruit and vegetable scraps, meat and bones, garden clippings and prunings will be collected each week from approximately 50,000 households in the city. The plant is designed to receive up to 40,000t of this waste from Penrith, with the initial throughput estimated at 33,000t.

“With the addition of an organics service about 60% of urban household waste will be either recycled or composted into a high grade product, reducing the City’s greenhouse gas emissions by 18,000 carbon equivalent tonnes per annum”, said councillor Jim Aitken, mayor of Penrith.

The composted organics from Penrith can be used in a number of beneficial projects. Some of the compost will be used to improve and maintain Councils’ parks, gardens and playing fields throughout the City.

The AWT process uses proven technology and offers holistic solutions for councils, converting organic waste from the residual waste stream (Liverpool) and also clean, source-separated organics (Penrith) into compost and mulch products, and recovering 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.

One of our biggest problems in managing waste across the country is that 8.5 million tonnes of degradable organic waste goes into landfill nationally every year. That organic material then breaks down anaerobically producing methane, which has more than 20 times the global arming effect as carbon dioxide”, Gernath said.

“Australian landfills now generate 15 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year. Keeping organics out of landfill via AWTs and organic composting is the way we need to be heading.

“This plant puts Penrith and Liverpool councils at the forefront of sustainability in Australia”, Gernath said.

The SAWT plant was approved by the NSW Government last year after a rigorous assessment process. The new plant will begin to be commissioned in a month with waste processing then ramped up until the plant is fully operational by late July 2009.