KINGSTON council is one of nine municipalities that have banded together to enter a Waste Supply Agreement with Maryvale EfW Project Co Pty Ltd (a consortium between Veolia Australia and New Zealand, Opal Australian Paper, and Masdar Tribe Australia) to send waste to an advanced waste processing facility in Maryvale in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.
The agreement will result in at least 95 per cent of household waste from participating councils being diverted from landfill and used to create a valuable energy source, under a smarter solution for dealing with household waste.
The nine councils are shareholders in South East Metropolitan Advanced Waste Processing (SEMAWP) Pty Ltd, a company created by the councils for the purpose of this procurement.
Announcing the agreement, SEMAWP’s Board Chair and Bayside City Council Chief Executive Officer, Mick Cummins, said by diverting SEMAWP Councils’ residual waste from landfill it will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 270,000 tonnes annually, equivalent to removing 50,000 cars from the road per year.
“This is a great outcome for residents of the nine councils involved in this project that began in 2019,” Mr Cummins said. “This solution provides an alternative to landfill that makes better use of household waste than burying it in the ground. Items that can’t be reused or recycled will be put to better use.” “It is expected to create more than 500 temporary jobs during construction and an estimated 455 permanent operating jobs, including direct and flow-on, over the coming years. So, it reduces emissions, creates investment and employment, and preserves land for better uses than landfill.”
Kingston Mayor Jenna Davey-Burns said we are proud to be partnering with our neighbours in the south-east to move away from our reliance on landfill.
First published in the Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News – 21 August 2024