Council announces state of the art recycling facility

The facility will be the biggest of its kind in the region.

Willy the wheely bin and friends along with Council Director of Community and Natural Resources, Tracey Stinson, Soilco General Manager Charlie Emery, Mayor of Tweed Katie Milne, Deputy Mayor Chris Cherry and Councillors Ron Cooper and Pryce Allsop. Picture: Supplied

The TWEED is one step closer to processing its own organics after it announced a state-of-the-art processing facility at the Stotts Creek Resource Recovery Centre.

The organics processing facility will be the largest of its kind in the Northern Rivers and will process nearly 1800 tonnes a month of the Tweed's food and garden waste, turning it into high-quality compost for reuse.

The contents of residents' green bins were previously processed outside the Tweed.

Soilco Pty Ltd has been awarded the contract to design, construct and operate the facility and has experience in creating recycled organics in an economically viable way.

Tweed Mayor Katie Milne thanked the State Government for its financial contribution to the organics processing facility, which is part of the Tweed Shire Council's long term "zero waste” commitment.

"The introduction of the green bins has reduced waste to landfill by approximately 20 per cent. We used to recover 42 per cent and now we recover 60 per cent due to the green bin waste getting turned into compost,” Cr Milne said.

"It is part of the Stotts Creek Resource Recovery Centre Masterplan, which plans for waste management for the next 50 years - a $40 million investment in responsibly minimising and managing our waste.

"It's great to hear a number of jobs will be created during construction as well as two new full-time jobs to operate the facility and other indirect jobs through distribution, which will be a welcome boost for the Tweed.”

Tweed MP Geoff Provest congratulated the council for its vision and investment in the facility.

"The project will reduce landfill and utilise organic waste to create a useable resource,” Mr Provest said.

Features within the new facility will include a 99KW solar power system which is expected to offset 22 per cent of the facility's power consumption.

Rainwater will also be captured from the roof for use within the processing operations and all wastewater generated from processing organics will be recycled back through the facility.

Construction is expected to begin later this year with the facility to be in operational by mid-2021.

Soilco Pty Ltd will operate the facility for a period of 10 years and use "in-vessel composting” which kills germs and turns garden waste into valuable compost for reuse within the Tweed.