Queensland's waste collection of the future to suck rubbish underground

The areas soon to be demolished for Brisbane's Queens Wharf resort along George St and the South Brisbane peninsula could go wheelie-bin free and tap into a "revolution in Australia's waste collection" services.

Envac, the Swedish company soon to build an automatic, underground recycling system on 52 hectares in Maroochydore, said its system "would revolutionise" old fashioned waste collection in Australia.

Brisbane City Council has suggested the nine-hectare $3 billion Queens Wharf and the 25-hectare South Bank peninsula sites could include the new automated waste collection services among the apartments and commercial properties.

In Maroochydore on Wednesday Envac regional president Chun Yong Ha questioned why Australia's waste collection services were so "far behind" systems in place in Europe and Asia.

Brisbane City Council suggests the Queens Wharf devellopment could include "automatic waste collection" similar to the idea launched in Maroochydore.

"My belief, based on my experience in other countries, is that our system will revolutionise waste collection in Australia," Mr Ha said.

"I see Australia – particularly – is far behind the waste collection system in other major cities in Europe and in Asia," he said.

"And in Australia, it is rather strange that the waste collection has remained "conventional" for so many years."

Mr Ha said his company had been in discussions with private developers in southern cities, but the Maroochydore project was the first big-scale project in Australia.

Sunshine Coast mayor Mark Jamieson with Envac Asia Region president Chun Yong Ha 'Waste collection is about to be revolutionised'.

He said the system involved sensors that automatically empty waste tubes during the day and vary the speed of the waste drawn by vacuum through the network, to fix blockages.

Sunshine Coast mayor Mark Jamieson said it was time for change.

Australia's first-ever underground pneumatic waste system has been suggested for the Queens Wharf project in Brisbane.

"For 100 years or more it has been trucks and bins and collection days and people remembering what bins they have to put out and everything else," Cr Jamieson said.

Maroochydore's automatic underground system will be built in stages over the next decade and attract other councils to investigate.

Greens councillor Jonathan Sri said the council removed the hedges following complaints from residents about homeless people hiding their belongings in the hedges.Credit: Amy Mitchell-Whittington

"I have no doubt it will bring a lot of other councils from around Australia to come and see what we are doing here."

Brisbane should quickly test the underground, pneumatic tube waste system – replacing wheelie bins – being installed in the new Maroochydore project, Greens councillor Jonathan Sri said.

"When you think how much petrol is burned and how energy is wasted with our current approach to collecting waste, it is clear we should be doing something more sustainable," Cr Sri said.

"I think this solution looks really cool and I would really like to see it trialled as part of redevelopment somewhere in the inner-city," he said.

On the South Brisbane side of the Brisbane River opposite Toowong, older factories will be eventually replaced by new higher-rise accommodation.

Cr Sri said that could be one site for a test because it would become a greenfield site.

However, he said was concerned that rising sea levels could mean an increase in flood risk.

"So if we are going to be using underground tubes to shift our waste around, we need to make sure that they not going to be detrimentally affected by rising seal levels."

Brisbane City Council said the scheme could be practical in cleared older areas, "brownfield' sites, or in "greenfield" sites which have no buildings.

That could include South Brisbane's Kurilpa Peninsula – on the opposite side of the Brisbane River to Milton – or the proposed new apartments and hotels in the Queens Wharf development between George and William Street, a mayoral spokeswoman said.

"This innovative underground waste facility proposal would only be possible to implement in Brisbane in greenfield or brownfield site developments," the spokeswoman said.

"But not in other areas due to the complexity of installing this type of infrastructure," she said.

Similar concepts could be a possible consideration as part of the Kurilpa Riverfront Renewal Project and the Queensland Government's Queens Wharf Project, Brisbane City Council said.

Council is still waiting for feedback from the Deputy Premier about the draft Kurilpa Master Plan, after she put it on hold in March 2015.

"Council also believes that this (automated waste collection) is a proposal that should be considered as part of the State Government's Queens Wharf Project," the spokeswoman said.

Star Entertainment Group has been asked for comment on the idea.

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