Eastern Creek incinerator: Cleanaway reveals plan for $500m incinerator
With time running out for city’s landfill sites, a new multimillion-dollar proposal has come forward for an incinerator for Western Sydney. But action groups say Eastern Creek would be a “dumping ground” for pollution.
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Sydney’s landfill crisis is set to be tackled with an ambitious proposal to convert household waste into enough energy to power 65,000 homes in the city’s western suburbs.
The $500 million initiative — which would see waste burnt at an Eastern Creek-based incinerator — would cut annual landfill volumes in western Sydney by 500,000 tonnes and is the vision of Australia’s largest waste management company, Cleanaway.
The state-of-the-art waste to energy conversion facility would be built at Wallgrove Rd, Eastern Creek, as part of a joint venture with Macquarie Capital’s Green Investment Group.
The multimillion-dollar state significant planning proposal for the facility is expected to be submitted to the NSW Government next month.
Cleanaway chief executive, Vik Bansal, said the Western Sydney Energy and Resource Recovery Centre would target red bin waste that cannot be recycled and earmarks western Sydney would become a leader in smart waste management.
“Our proposal, if successful, would turn rubbish that would have been landfilled into a clean
source of energy that supplies the grid and contributes to more affordable power for
consumers,” Mr Bansal said.
“Our facility would create 800 jobs during construction and 50 ongoing local jobs and bring new skills to NSW.”
Households and businesses across western Sydney currently generate enough landfill waste to fill more than 2400 Olympic-sized swimming pools every year, however, Mr Bansal argues the Cleanaway incinerator project at Eastern Creek would see almost a third of all waste transferred into energy.
“By diverting waste from our landfills, an energy from waste facility would reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by more than 450,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year,” Mr Bansal said. “This is the same as taking about 100,000 cars off our roads.”
Government consultation is already underway for the proposal, which is currently undertaking planning assessments for the incinerator.
Countries including Germany, France, Sweden and the UK have established waste to energy resource centres.
A strong campaign has been waged against the approval of larger incinerators across western Sydney, with ongoing Land and Environment Court proceedings against a proposal for a massive facility at Eastern Creek by Dial-A-Dump Industries’ Next Generation.
The proposal for that $700 million development saw close to 1000 objections to an independent Planning Commission, which resulted in a refusal of the plans on July 18, 2018, and a case launched in the courts.
Panel members argued there was “insufficient evidence” that the proposed pollution control technologies are capable of appropriately managing emissions.
“There is uncertainty in relation to the air quality, and the relationship between air quality impacts and water quality impacts,” the panel’s findings found.
“As a result, there is uncertainty in relation to the human health risks and site suitability.”
Mr Bansal clarified Cleanaway’s technology would ensure the environmental safety.
“The emission cleaning systems ensure the emissions leaving the plant is cleaned before it
enters the atmosphere,” he said.
“The proposal will be assessed considering the triple bottom line — making sure it creates social, environmental and economic benefits. We won’t spare any effort to ensure the design is leading edge in terms of environmental controls and safe for the community.
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Blacktown Mayor and state Labor MP Stephen Bali called for new guidelines to protect local communities.
“Regardless the merit of the facilities, the community have asked for the reformation of laws and assessment process, which are outdated, he said.
“It is so difficult to work out the impact of local residents.
“There are several other incinerators proposed in Sydney and the government has failed to modernise the assessment process.”
Cr Bali said the proposal is looking at a “19th century solution for a 21st century problem”.
“You have kids protest climate change and companies are still proposing to burn waste,” he said.
“There should be a parliamentary inquiring into monitoring, regulating and reviewing these issues. We need worlds-best practice to provide benchmarks to protect the community and the environment.
“Incinerators should be banned from large population bases.”
The comments from Cr Bali were also echoed by the No Incinerator for Western Sydney group, with a spokeswoman claiming the Cleanaway proposal was “no different” from previous applications rejected in the past.
“NSW Planning, NSW EPA, NSW Health, local councils and the residents voiced their concerns against (previous) proposals,” she said. “Waste to energy technology is the dirtiest type of energy production in the world and for every 4 tonnes of rubbish burnt, one tonne of extremely toxic and dangerous fly ash must be buried and left for our future generations to deal with.
“Not to mention the added air pollution and carcinogens being pumped into our environment daily.”
The spokeswoman said incinerators are not the “way forward for our future”.
“Once again, Western Sydney is the dumping ground and although they say it is only for 500,000 tonnes, which is no less dangerous, this is just the beginning and the strategy they use to get their foot in the door and the proposal approved,” she said.