Katoomba Waste Management Facility Upgrade *NEW*
New Era in Waste Management - Resources Not Waste
The upgraded Katoomba Waste Management Facility (Katoomba WMF) was officially opened on 13 August 2010. The $7million upgrade includes a new waste transfer station and upgraded resource recovery facilities.
The landfill operation at the site is now closed. Material received at the site is classified and, wherever possible, re-useable materials such as furniture, books, toys and firewood are made available for residents to remove free of charge. Recyclable materials such as cardboard, scrap metal and mixed household recyclables are taken off site for processing. Only residual waste is baled and transported to the newly extended Blaxland Waste Management Facility for landfill.
The site upgrade has incorporated numerous safety and environmental improvements and has increased the overall efficiency of the resource recovery operation and transport of waste. The new facility will enable improved diversion of waste from landfill.
Safety and Environmental Improvements
A number of safety and environmental improvements have been made to the facility:
- The new operations significantly reduce odour, dust and litter from the site;
- Bins or bays have been established to sort waste into various components to assist in resource recovery;
- Storm water and leachate management have been upgraded to protect local waterways;
- Trees used for re-vegetation and rehabilitation have been grown from seed collected from indigenous vegetation on the site;
- The new site incorporates rainwater harvesting for use in the buildings and on site;
- The small vehicle tipping area is under cover to ensure all weather operation;
- An all weather surface has been constructed on the resource recovery platform for large vehicle access and movement;
- Improved staff and customer parking;
- Improved road system for better and safer traffic management;
- Separation of small and large vehicles for safer unloading; and
- Ongoing monitoring and reporting regime for groundwater and surface water.
Following completion of the capping and rehabilitation of the old landfill area, a 1.5 to 2m high screening bund is proposed around the perimeter for visual and acoustic screening.
All buildings have been designed to support future solar panels and conduit has been laid throughout the site to enable renewable energy to be feed back into the power grid in the future.
Initial Performance Results
During the 18-week period 1 July to 31 October 2010, 11,959 customers delivered 8,532 tonnes of waste to the Katoomba Waste Management Facility. 60% (4.942 tonnes) of this volume was transported for landfill disposal at the Blaxland Waste Management Facility.
Operation of the new facility has provided opportunities to improve knowledge of the types and volumes of waste delivered which has had a direct impact on identification of recoverable streams. During October, two new products, clothing/textiles and mattresses, were added to the materials separately stockpiled for reuse/recycling. Initial monitoring indicates that over 1 tonne of clothing/textiles and between 25 and 30 mattresses can be diverted each week. Resource recovery opportunities will continue to be investigated over the coming months as the processes on site continue to be improved and methods are introduced to capture more resources from the mixed waste streams.
This item was posted in December 2010.
