Sasha Grebe, rumoured to be eyeing Liberal bid for Warringah, backs world-class recycling plant
A rumoured Liberal contender for Zali Steggall’s seat of Warringah says he has ‘green credentials’ and is calling for a state-of-the-art recycling plant for the peninsula.
Manly
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A former Liberal Adviser to Scott Morrison, who is rumoured to have his eye on the Warringah seat at the next federal election, is supporting a push for a state-of-the-art recycling plant on the northern beaches.
Sasha Grebe, 50, who helped set up a renewable energy company in the Philippines several years ago, would not comment on any personal political ambitions.
But when pressed on the Liberal’s fight to regain Warringah, he said that any candidate would have to convince the public they were genuinely passionate about the environment.
It follows Zali Steggall’s decisive win which saw former prime minister Tony Abbott toppled from power after 25 years.
She mainly fought the election on the need to tackle climate change, which seemed to resonate with the electorate.
“It’s clear that communities like Warringah are looking for action from their elected leader on these issues and I’ve long been an advocate and early adopter of renewable solutions,” Mr Grebe said.
“The challenge for all those who represent their community is how to accurately reflect their view on key issues such as climate change and renewables.
“The problem for Zali Steggall is she’s limited in what she can achieve as an independent in a majority government.”
Mr Grebe, a father-of-three from Cremorne, was keen to highlight his “green” credentials and said he believed in climate change, but said he was not sure what “all the causes were”.
He added he was also an “economic rationalist”
He now works for the Downer Group, which has some sustainable business including making road surfaces from recycled plastics, but is also a mining contractor among other things.
He also admitted he did not yet have solar panels or an electric car, the two questions continually thrown at Ms Steggall during and after the election.
But he did say he was in the process of renovating his home and planned to install solar panels then.
Mr Grebe said his friend James Newman, of St Ives, invested in the renewable energy company he helped set up in its original form and it now has an operational plant in India.
Mr Grebe cut all ties with the company when he took the job with Mr Morrison.
He said he was supporting Mr Newman’s bid to convince Northern Beaches Council to do a feasibility study on whether the recycling plant — which uses thermal energy to convert plastic waste into renewable energy — would work at Kimbriki tip.
“It doesn’t take up much space, it is self-contained, it’s not an incinerator, there’s no towers and it disposes of plastic waste while producing electricity which can be fed back into the grid. It makes sense,” he said.
Mr Grebe said the plant would require 1,500 to 2,000 sqm of land on which to build a plant that is 50m long by 20m wide to a height of 14.2m.
He said the plant could produce one megawatt waste-to-energy each hour of the day and that electricity would be sold into the grid as base-load power.
“This proposal will help council meet its goal to support innovative solutions to reduce waste and minimise waste transport,” he said.
“As a Liberal I don’t think the environment and commercialism are mutually exclusive.”
Mr Newman plans to lodge a motion asking for the council to undertake a feasibility study shortly.
He said the feasibility study could be conducted in conjunction with the Waste Transformation Research Hub at Sydney University.