$21m recycling centre roars to life in Mount Isa

A new $21m recycling facility has roared to life in Mount Isa. It’s expected to one day make a profit for ratepayers - and has also revealed the town’s unique relationship with cardboard. VIDEO.

A test bale of processed recyclables at the MRF (pronounced, 'merf')

A brand new recycling centre has roared to life in Mount Isa.

The $21m Material Recovery Facility (MRF) is expected to one day make a profit for ratepayers by helping council avoid pricey landfill levies and selling bulk products to wholesalers.

It has also revealed the town’s unexpected relationship with cardboard.

Recycling centre co-ordinator Richard Auld said since the facility fired up in mid-February they’ve seen a lot more cardboard than the facility’s manufacturers expected.

“There is a lot of paper here in Mount Isa. Apparently we’re a little bit different to the other towns in how we use cardboard and paper,” Mr Auld said.

“I’m guessing it’s because of how we get everything shipped here.”

Cardboard and paper is sorted into a separate chute by the MRF and diverted to a compression baler, which squeezes the paper products into one-tonne bales that are stored on site to one day be sold off in bulk.

Yellow-lidded recycle bins were first delivered to Mount Isa homes in December, allowing council to start a stockpile of recyclables to use during the MRF’s February ‘wet-run’ testing period.

Mount Isa City Council's Chad King, Mayor Peta MacRae and recycling centre co-ordinator Richard Auld with the paper bales.

Despite being brand new to recycling, Mr Auld said the Mount Isa community was sorting their recycles at a much better rate than other towns.

“We are at 10 to 15 per cent contamination,” he said.

“That rate is better than what recovery sites on the coast are seeing. It’s much better than what we expected, and that is thanks to a lot of education that’s been done.”

The new $21 million Materials Recovery Facility at the Mount Isa Waste Management Facility on Jessop Dr.

A few Mount Isa businesses have already shown an interest in using products from MRF, including road crews wanting recycled glass to use as a road sand-base.

Mount Isa Council community services director Chad King said they “learnt a lot from Cairns” about making recycling profitable.

“Our target material is aluminium which can be sold for quite a bit. Paper is at the complete other end of the spectrum where the price swings and can sometimes be in the negative to sell it,” Mr King said.

“We will be onselling what we make, and the aim is to make a profit for the ratepayer.”

Mount Isa Mayor Peta MacRae also pointed out that every kg being diverted away from landfill helped council avoid the state landfill levy.

Mount Isa City Council rolled out yellow-lidded recycle bins to residents in December.

“The consequences of not building a facility like this, is we would’ve just kept paying more and more to use landfill,” Mayor MacRae said.

Right now general waste in Queensland attracts a levy rate (per tonne) of $115 which will increase annually until it reaches $145 in 2027-28.

The state landfill levy was introduced in 2019 as a $75 per tonne charge.

The levy is designed to help reduce the amount of waste Queenslanders send to landfill, and 70 per cent of its revenue is collected for “reinvestment” into waste management and resource recovery projects.

The Mount Isa MRF was assisted by a $6 million government grant.

Originally published as $21m recycling centre roars to life in Mount Isa