Mackay Regional Council is upgrading its rural waste transfer station in Sarina, transforming it into a clean and green waste facility, to better manage the region’s rubbish.
The new $2.4 million facility, to be built at the current Sarina Waste Transfer Station site, will feature purpose built structures for disposal and collection of green waste and individual containers for steel, whitegoods and recycling.
Mackay’s Waste, Health and Regulatory Services portfolio holder, Councillor Laurence Bonaventura, said Council was focused on providing efficient and environmentally friendly waste stations.
“This new facility will allow residents to discard their rubbish into categories so we can deliver the waste to where it needs to go, either to Hogan’s Pocket Landfill or Council’s Materials and Recovery Facility (MRF).
“The more recyclables we recover, the less waste we have, and fewer carbon emissions. It will also save space in landfill, which is a cost saving.”
Cr Bonaventura said that Mackay Regional Council was leading the way in waste management.
“Council has a state-of-the-art landfill site at Hogan’s Pocket and is building user-friendly and efficient waste transfer stations to continue to reduce our operating costs and protect the environment.”
Having recently awarded the tender for the upgrade of the Sarina site to Shamrock Civil Engineering, Council intends work on the $2.4 million facility to start this month.
Council has also earmarked an additional $852,000 in next year’s budget to ensure that the site remains open during construction. Cr Bonaventura said that it was important that the waste station remained open for residents to utilise.
“Residents don’t want to be travelling long distances to discard their rubbish, so that is why we are keeping the existing site open and building the new facility at the current site.”
Construction of the new waste facility is expected to be completed by June 2014, weather permitting.
