The GRL facility in Eastern Creek will be transitioned to the largest FOGO processing facility in Australia.
Cleanaway is transitioning an alternative waste treatment facility at Eastern Creek, NSW, into the largest food organics/garden organics processing facility in Australia.
Organics processing is a growth area in Australia, but there’s currently a sizeable gap in market capacity, says Catherine Phillips, Commercial Manager of Organics for Cleanaway.
Seven years seems like a big window to reach national and state government targets of introducing food and garden organic (FOGO) collections to all households by 2030, but, Catherine says, there’s a lot of volume to come online in that time, and not enough infrastructure.
As councils navigate the path to FOGO collection, Cleanaway is committed to supporting them and providing the infrastructure required to safely and effectively process FOGO into organic products. Last year Cleanaway acquired the Global Renewables (GRL) alternative waste treatment facility at Eastern Creek for $168m, with the aim of transitioning it to be the largest FOGO processing facility in Australia.
“There’s a challenge for councils and processors to work together to understand when capacity needs to be available, and when feedstock volumes will come online,” Catherine says.
“There’s a lot of work being done to make sure we’re in a position to not only process the waste, but also to work with councils as they go through the journey to bring in FOGO.
“There are challenges for industry and councils to work through.”
GRL’s fully automated decontamination and composting process has been turning Sydney’s red-bin waste into compost for the past 20 years, and is currently handling 220,000 tonnes annually. The technology used is similar to what’s needed to process FOGO.
Cleanaway conducted trials at the facility in December 2022, processing kerbside FOGO material into an Australian standard compost product.
Catherine says the trial validated Cleanaway’s ability to transition the site from processing municipal solid waste to processing FOGO. There are now plans in place to complete required upgrade works in line with FOGO volumes coming online over the coming years.
Nathan Lopez, Cleanaway’s Regional Organics Manager for NSW, has been at GRL since the facility opened its doors.
“The Cleanaway team at GRL has nearly two decades of experience with producing organic products for soil amendment and will be using this expertise to ensure Sydney’s FOGO is processed into high value products that contribute to the circular economy,” Nathan says.
“GRL’s dynamic SCT Biomax composting process provides for a consistent and high quality product, all in a fully enclosed, odour managed environment.”
While Cleanaway is confident it will have capacity to meet demand in the Sydney area, it is also looking at other investments that will be needed to process the burgeoning organics sector by 2030.
The company has recently commissioned a new FOGO process facility at Mildura, in north-west Victoria, which will provide a template for Cleanaway to continue working with other regional councils to process their organics.
The Mildura facility is processing up to 15,000 tonnes of FOGO using Covered Aerated Static Pile composting technology. Organic waste is placed in an aerated concrete bunker with a Gore cover on top.
Catherine says the technology provides the same environmental benefits as being fully enclosed, such as managing leachate and odour and mitigating environmental impacts, but can be done at a smaller scale.
The organic products created at Mildura will be returned to the community to improve soil health, closing the loop and creating a circular economy for the region.
Gavin Sedgmen, Cleanaway’s Operations Supervisor at Mildura FOGO, has worked closely with Sustainability Victoria and the site team to design, construct, and commission the facility over the past two years.
“We’re really seeing what we’ve done in Mildura, using state-of-the-art technology for that scale, as a blueprint for what we can roll out elsewhere,” Catherine says. “We want to work with councils.”
Catherine sees contamination and education as the two main stumbling blocks on the way to introducing FOGO. She says helping people understand that what goes in their FOGO bin affects the quality of the end products will make a big difference to contamination rates.
What would also help is an alignment and consistency around the country as to what can and can’t be composted. Catherine says one of the challenges is the varying requirements from one area to another. Despite the obstacles, she says there’s eagerness about the opportunities within organics to close the loop.
“To be taking a huge volume of material out of landfill, and the carbon benefits that come with that, are exciting,” she says. “To be doing what you believe is the right thing while also delivering benefits to the community – it’s a very exciting time to be involved.”
For more information, visit: www.cleanaway.com.au