A major report has highlighted the challenges facing WA in meeting waste recycling goals.
In February 2021, waste management heavyweights Suez and Auswaste revealed plans to build an $86 million recycling facility in Perth.
With help from government grants, they were planning to process up to 100,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard waste each year.
That project has never seen the light of day.
The Waste Authority’s 2023 annual report, published nearly a year ago, signalled a replacement had been lined up.
“A new paper and card project has been awarded funding but is yet to be announced,” the report stated.
At the time of going to press, that project has not gained traction, either.
This is symptomatic of a sector where multiple projects have been scrapped or delayed, variously because of COVID disruptions, rising construction costs or larger opportunities in other markets.
Other announced projects that have failed to proceed include Cleanaway’s plastic recycling plant and the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council’s plan for a food organics and garden organics, aka FOGO recycling facility.
But it’s not all bad news, with local firm Total Green Recycling and Taiwanese company Chairay Sustainable Plastic Co reporting progress on their projects after lengthy delays, as detailed below.
The challenge facing Western Australia has been laid out in the recent state waste infrastructure plan, which highlights the need for major investments if WA is to meet its recycling goals.
It says WA’s most significant infrastructure needs include development of cardboard and paper facilities, to recycle nearly 400,000 tonnes a year.
Another high priority is the construction of more facilities to process FOGO material.
The report also cites “considerable concern” about the state’s capacity to manage the rapidly increasing volumes of electronic waste, or e-waste.
In addition, it concludes that “significant improvement” is required in the recovery, or recycling, of municipal waste, especially in major regional centres but also in Perth and Peel.
And it acknowledges that landfill– long considered by policymakers as the option of last resort – will continue to play a role.
Data dump
The infrastructure plan spells out the scale of the waste management task.
Nearly six million tonnes of waste is generated in WA each year, or about 2.2t per person.
Of this amount, about 55 per cent is recovered in some manner, while the balance is dumped in landfill.
The government’s waste strategy, currently under review, is targeting a big improvement in the recovery rate, to 77 per cent by 2030.
It assumes that 10 per cent of all waste will be used as feedstock for the two privately owned waste-to-energy plants currently being commissioned, at East Rockingham and Kwinana.
That leaves a modest 13 per cent going to landfill.
Crucially, the strategy also factors in a 20 per cent reduction in the volume of waste each person generates.
As a result, the total volume of waste to be managed is assumed to be the same as current levels, despite substantial population growth out to 2030.
Environment Minister Reece Whitby said the waste infrastructure plan was serving its purpose.
“The document is intended for use by the waste and recycling industry as well as governments to identify infrastructure priorities through to 2050 with an initial focus on 2030,” Mr Whitby said.
He added that waste management and recycling was generally the private sector’s responsibility.
“Investment in the required infrastructure must be underpinned by strong business cases that identify viable products and markets,” Mr Whitby said.
That may be true, but it is typically governments that are held to account.
The minister said work under way to support the sector included an update to the state’s waste strategy and a waste roadmap, which will outline actions to implement the strategy.
“It’s anticipated this will be released for public consultation in early to mid-2025,” Mr Whitby said.
He also pointed to various state government grants, with a particular focus on promoting the rollout of a three-bin FOGO system across local councils.
Councils that have adopted this system have reported recovery rates of 56 per cent compared to 14 per cent for those with a two-bin system.
Many councils across Perth have not adopted three-bin FOGO systems because they are contractually committed to supply minimum volumes to the waste-to-energy sector.
Those arrangements have dampened the state government’s enthusiasm for waste-to-energy, which has been characterised as little better than landfill.
However, Mr Whitby seems to have softened his stance.
“It’s also important to remember that all waste streams that avoid landfill are preferred, with wasteto-energy projects in Kwinana and Rockingham playing an important role in the waste hierarchy,” he said.
Tech take
One company taking its opportunity in waste-to-energy is Veolia, which is already a big player in waste collection, sorting and recycling in WA.
Drawing on its global experience, Veolia is providing the technical know-how to operate both of Perth’s waste-to-energy plants, which are the first in Australia.
Chief operating officer for resource recovery, Craig Barker, said Australia’s progressive, circular economy policies would drive increased investment by the company over the next few years.
“The recycling and recovery sector in WA make up a large part of this mission and is already on a growth trajectory,” Mr Barker told Business News.
The company has upgraded its North Bannister and Bibra Lake facilities, creating enough capacity to transfer and process FOGO waste for an additional 70,000 residential homes.
“Broadly, WA is getting on with the job and strong legislation has helped to accelerate developments,” Mr Barker said.
“The next important hurdle will be to roll out tighter mandates around waste acceptance criteria, so we can improve recycling and recovery rates, and to increase waste levies, which we know from experience is the most proven way to divert waste from landfill.”
Reece Whitby says the state’s waste infrastructure plan is a tool to help private industry and government with their planning. Photo: Michael O’Brien
Way forward
The state waste infrastructure plan also identified opportunities to improve the sector.
Top of its priority list was contingency planning for treatment of cardboard and paper waste in Perth.
It predicts Perth will need facilities to process 291,000t of cardboard and paper by 2030.
That is on the assumption Perth will already have one facility in place to process 100,000t of cardboard and paper.
As discussed previously, however, that is far from certain. So, the real task is nearly 400,000t.
Business News understands delays in finalising the federal government’s rules around exports of paper and cardboard waste have affected the replacement project.
The report proposed investigating waste precincts to facilitate additional facilities.
Another possibility was to allow facilities processing garden waste to accept FOGO, even though FOGO processing is generally seen as a more complex and costly task.
The report says WA will need a further 100,000t of FOGO recovery capacity.
That is on the premise the state will have seven FOGO facilities processing 505,000t by the time we reach 2030.
The state government awarded grants last year to three operators to build facilities that would recycle up to 275,000t of FOGO into compost.
One of these was the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council, which has deferred its planned facility but is working with the government to try and revive its plans.
Private operators C-Wise Holdings and GO Organics are proceeding with their projects, with C-Wise planning to invest $42 million in a new facility near Mandurah.
In the e-waste sector, two big projects backed by the state government have had issues.
National operator Scipher Technologies was awarded $1.9 million three years ago for a photovoltaic recycling facility in Perth but fell into administration early this year.
It is no longer active in WA under its own name.
Its WA subsidiary, Total Green Recycling, continues to operate while Scipher finalises a financial restructuring with its creditors.
Total Green Recycling was awarded $2 million in 2021 for expansion of its e-waste recycling facilities.
The expansion project is under way and is scheduled to be completed by the end of June 2025.
In the municipal waste field, one of the major operators is in the process of being wound-up.
At its peak, Resource Recovery Group (formerly the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council) handled waste services for seven local councils. However, all have progressively withdrawn or flagged their intention to do so.
The City of Fremantle and the City of Melville will be the last to leave, in July next year.
City of Melville Mayor Katy Mair said the withdrawal of other councils meant her municipality was no longer able to afford the continued overhead charges related to the RRG site.
Chief executive Greg Watts says C-Wise is planning a new facility near Mandurah. Michael O’Brien
The cities of Melville, Fremantle and Canning (which owns the RRG site) are trying to put together a new collective arrangement so they can “transition to a new and more cost-effective waste processing arrangement”.
It remains unclear how those competing goals can be achieved.
RRG’s phased shutdown has adversely affected a new entrant to the WA market.
Chairay Sustainable Plastic Co was awarded a $5.6 million grant in 2021 to build a plastics recycling facility.
It struck a deal to lease premises at RRG’s Canning Vale, site but that deal was scrapped by RRG late last year.
It has taken Chairay more than six months to find alternative premises.
It will start moving this month into a newly built facility at 204 Bannister Road, Canning Vale where Centuria has developed an 8,800 square metre site.
The new premises bring some benefits, such as allowing Chairay to undertake sorting, flaking and pelletising of plastic waste at the one site.
It expects to begin commissioning the recycling facility in January next year and will ramp up to full capacity of 21,000t per year.
