Waste project signs supply deal

The East Rockingham Waste to Energy project has won a public tender to process residual waste from the Western Metropolitan Regional Council.

The $511 million project will use waste that is currently sent to landfill and process it to generate electricity.

The new contract follows earlier supply deals with the City of Cockburn and the East Metropolitan Regional Council.

General manager Jason Pugh said the project had locked in about 70 per cent of its expected throughout, of 300,000 tonnes of waste per year.

The contracts are on a ‘waste arising’ basis, which means the participating councils only supply waste that is remaining after recycling and resource recovery.

Mr Pugh said the project was looking to sign up more supply deals with local government authorities and commercial waste producers.

The City of Rockingham is currently conducting a tender for its waste disposal.

Another prospect is Mindarie Regional Council, which is planning to close its landfill in Perth’s northern suburbs by 2028.

The East Rockingham project is halfway through its 3-year construction phase.

Mr Pugh said it expected to accept its first waste in July next year and be fully operational from the end of 2022.

The East Rockingham project is backed by a consortium that includes investor John Laing and technology provider Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), which has delivered over 500 waste-to-energy projects globally.

It will generate 29 megawatts of renewable baseload electricity, enough to power more than 36,000 homes.

Avertas Energy, which is backed by Macquarie Capital, is building a similar facility at Kwinana to process 400,000 tonnes of waste per year.

WMRC chief executive Stefan Frodsham said the contract gave its member councils the ability to meet many of their targets in the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2030.

“‘This contract places the WMRC member councils in a good position to reduce both the cost of waste management and its impact on the environment,” he said.