Inside new $14.3m recycling facility sorting your kerbside yellow bin waste
A state of the art $14.3m one-stop recycling facility is stepping up the war on waste through hi-tech technology used to minimise material sent to landfill. SEE THE VIDEO
Cairns
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A NEW state of the art $14.3m one-stop Cairns Regional Council recycling facility is stepping up the war on waste through hi-tech sorting technology used to minimise valuable material sent to landfill.
An additional 310 tonnes of recycling has been diverted from landfill each month since the new Portsmith facility began processing materials sourced from kerbside collection contractors.
Plant recycling manager Steve Cosatto said the new plant, officially opened last month, can now repurpose 85 per cent of materials dropped in yellow lidded kerbside bins.
“That’s up from 56 per cent, it’s a huge increase,” he said.
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He said efficiencies saved about 4,000 tonnes a year from being transported to the Springmount Waste Management Facility which equated to 17 fewer trucks travelling up the Kuranda Range to Mareeba each month to deposit waste.
The plant is expected to meet the recycling needs of Cairns for the next 10-15 years given a maximum capacity of 25,000 tonnes a year – currently throughput of the plant is sitting at 12,000 tonnes per annum.
Strategic recycling co-ordinator Nigel Crumpton said material passed through a series machines that auto sorted different types.
“Once it’s past the pre-sort we remove large cardboard, then large paper, then small paper, then it goes through a magnet to get rid of steel cans, then it goes through an eddy current that attracts aluminium cans,” he said.
“Then it goes to a plastics optical sort which is the new capability that we have got.
“It’s got a library of images and it can detect brands and it matches them together and identifies a target product.”
Recycling education officer Scott Patterson said more accurate sorting meant less contamination of plastic bundles.
“Sending cleaner material out means more opportunity to sell that material, which then increases out ability to divert proper resources from material residents are putting in their kerbside bins,” he said.
The sale of material, mostly to buyers in southeast Queensland, does not yet cover the operation costs of the plant.
A classroom-style education unit called the Rediscovery Centre gives visitors a bird’s eye view of the recycling process. Since February the centre has educated more than 400 visiting students about what can and can’t be recycled.
However, the biggest challenge for the team at the Portsmith Materials Recovery Facility was residents dumping un-recyclable and dangerous items in their kerbside bins.
Items such as flares, ammunition, engine parts, washing machine and most disturbingly live cats have been found in collected kerbside waste.
Plant boss Mr Cosatto said the real threat of needle stick injury to workers posed by used syringes being dumped in kerbside bins was of greatest concern.
“They make a choice to put them in the yellow bin and not the red bin so they obviously think they are recyclable, but they are not,” he said.
“It’s a concern and one of the disappointing things.”
The state government contributed $3m toward the project through the Building our Regions program and $11.3m has been invested by council.
Originally published as Inside new $14.3m recycling facility sorting your kerbside yellow bin waste
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