Plans to develop a 25 hectare composting facility north of Bindoon, potentially worth up to $25 million, are now in front of the federal environmental regulator for approval.
The project will be built in Cullalla, about 90 kilometres north of Perth by Wannamal Road Organics.
Wannamal Road is a consortium of local landowners and Peter Keating, managing director of research consultancy Bioscience WA.
Mr Keating is an adjunct professor at Murdoch University.
The federal environment department will be reviewing the plans under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act process.
“It (the project) is very timely,” Mr Keating said.
“Northlink is now finished, it's a realistic infrastructure corridor.”
He said the state government had also been expanding the three bin system, which has a new dedicated bin for organics.
Mr Keating said it was intended the facility would be able to produce pelletised compost which could be used in the agriculture industry.
“Whilst there will be hundreds of thousands of tonnes diverted from landfill, it will be hundreds of thousands more tonnes of compost than gardens can realistically use,” he said, adding that it made sense to make use of the compost for agriculture.
Mr Keating said environmental work and early investigations of the proposal had been under way for about five years.
The waste and recycling industry has been undergoing significant change in the past 10 years, driven by the rising landfill levy.
That is intended to reduce waste entering landfill by increasing the price of disposal.
