Whyalla Council’s Waste Operations Supervisor, Craig Pedler, in front of a growing pile of scrap
timber soon to be converted to timber chips and spread around Whyalla’s
public open space areas and gardens as ground cover.
Although Whyalla’s low rainfall and arid climate are currently compounded by the national drought, it is fast becoming a ‘green’ city. In 2007, Council made a significant change to the operation of its landfill waste site, which has seen a record 44 per cent of incoming materials diverted for recycling in the first quarter of 2008.
Whyalla City Council’s Waste Operations Supervisor, Craig Pedler, said this is equivalent to almost 2,160 tonnes of potentially unnecessary landfill being put to good use.
“We have had an exceptional start to the year, considering that for all of 2007, we only diverted 18 per cent of waste away from the site,” he said. “The latest results show that Council’s new management approach to remove as much recyclable material as possible from the kerbside and at the site itself has been an outstanding success.”
Craig Pedler said the improvement is a result of the commitment of waste management staff and the community, an improved gate fee structure that encourages recycling, and new work methods at the landfill site.
“Whyalla residents now benefit from a three bin kerbside pickup system – traditional household waste, recyclables and green garden waste, which has resulted in a reduction from 145 tonnes of waste going to landfill each week to just 87 tonnes,” he said. “A new gate fee structure also rewards commercial vehicles for sorting their waste before arriving at the waste transfer station. By keeping materials such as concrete, clean dirt and timber segregated, commercial clients only pay around a third of the price they would if their waste was mixed.”
Following a redevelopment of the site, residents will also be able to save money by sorting their waste.
Currently, Council is using the traditional tip method, where residents empty their trailers directly at the tip face.
Once complete, a new sorting shed will provide residents with access to separation and transfer bays so they can sort their rubbish into green waste, recyclables and so on, to obtain the discount price. Any left over materials will them be dumped under the shed, where waste operators will again sort through and remove anything that is salvageable, before anything left is buried.
The redevelopment also involves the development of a composting operation, which will see green organics composted to Australian standards.
“As a result of these improvements, we expect 20,000 tonnes of landfill for the year, which is a 30 per cent drop on last year’s 28,000 tonnes,” Craig Pedler said. “But we still hope to get this down to 18,000 tonnes, with the impending completion of the sorting shed.”
The greater the level of material that can be diverted away from landfill, the more a levy payable to the Environment Protection Authority reduces.
Last year, Whyalla Council paid more than $324,000 in landfill levies and aims to cut this back to around $200,000 this year. In the last three months of 2007, levies totalled $85,000, but for the first three months of this year they have been reduced by almost $30,000 to $56,600.
Material recycled during the first three months comprised 970 tonnes of concrete and rock, 507 tonnes of kerbside recyclables,
310 tonnes of kerbside green organics,
260 tonnes of tree prunings, 70 tonnes of timber and pallets and 40 tonnes of stumps and logs.
Green waste and chipped timber is converted into mulch, and together with screen compost, is available for resale throughout the City.
Concrete and rubble is also crushed and used as road base and for civil construction.
“While it is still early days, the initial results are very satisfying and give everyone involved renewed enthusiasm to keep pushing forward,” Craig Pedler said.
Whyalla Mayor, Jim Pollock, said he is very proud of the efforts being made by Council and the community generally in embracing the needs to minimise hard waste to landfill.
“If we genuinely want a sustainable future for our City and want to minimise unnecessary costs, it is imperative that the types of initiatives so far introduced are maintained and further expanded,” Mayor Pollock said.
Council recently lodged a development application for a salvage yard at the landfill site, which would be used to sell reusable items back to the community.
For further information contact Craig Pedler on 0418 810 167.
