Waste plant jitters as Melville eyes options

The operator of one of the biggest waste treatment plants in the state faces an anxious wait as the City of Melville reviews its investment in the waste treatment and resource recovery plant.

The Southern Metropolitan Regional Council (SMRC) said it was confident Melville’s review of the cost and environmental benefits of processing its waste at the SMRC’s Regional Resource Recovery plant would not signal its exit from the regional partnership.

Rockingham City Council recently withdrew from the SMRC but it did not invest in the Regional Resource Recovery plant and consequently it did not have an equity stake in the project.

SMRC chief executive Stuart McAll said Melville had a significant investment in the facility and he was not aware of any plans to withdraw from it.

The SMRC was formed in 1998 and a $55 million waste treatment and resource recovery plant was built at Canning Vale.

The facility was funded and built through a partnership between the Cockburn, East Fremantle, Fremantle, Melville and Canning councils.

SMRC chief executive Stuart McAll said one of Melville’s key concerns was the cost of the service weighed up against its environmental benefits.

“I think they will undertake the review and they may have some questions afterwards but I don’t believe they are looking at the implications of withdrawing,” Mr McAll said.

“They are looking at alternatives and what the current costs are, so they understand the real costs of the environmental savings they are achieving.

“Withdrawal from the SMRC is a very different investigation.”

Mr McAll said he expected other member councils would undertake reviews from time to time in the future.

“I think it’s a good healthy thing to do, to review the environmental benefits we are providing to the community,” Mr McAll said.

It is understood one of Melville’s key concerns was the cost of the waste treatment service, which is substantially higher than an alternative like landfill.

But unlike Rockingham, Melville does not have a landfill facility it could redirect its waste to.

City of Melville acting chief executive John Christie said the council remained fully committed to the SMRC and this would be the case until its review was completed.

“There are increasing costs associated with recycling and we want to ensure the environmental benefits are commensurate with our costs,” he said.

The state government wants landfill to be abolished by 2020, a target that will only be met through alternative waste treatment.

The SMRC plant recovers about 68 per cent of waste, however, its services come at a cost and draft budget estimates suggest fees could increase 6 per cent in 2011-12 to $193.75 a tonne.

And despite its environmental benefits, the SMRC’s plant has proved unpopular with some community members, who complain of odours from its household waste composting facility and continue to lobby for its closure.

It would be possible for the SMRC waste plant to continue operating if Melville made a decision to withdraw from the partnership but SMRC chairman Tony Romano said it would ‘make life very difficult’.

Rockingham City Councilís exit from the SMRC last month came nine months after Canning Council’s decision to turn its back on the environmental waste treatment plant in June last year.

Canning has continued to pay its share of the debt for the plant and the SMRC said this would be the case for any other project participant.