Mitchell Shire Council and Melbourne Water have unveiled plans for Victoria’s most environmentally friendly waste transfer station. It will be located in the town of Wallan on Melbourne’s northern growth boundary.
The Wallan Resource Recovery Centre is a new facility being built in response to unprecedented population growth in the south of Mitchell Shire.
The construction of a new facility on a greenfield site presented Council with an opportunity to do something truly innovative with the project. Melbourne Water’s Living Rivers Stormwater Program answered the call and contributed its expertise in protecting rivers, creeks and other waterways from the potentially damaging effects of urban stormwater.
A purpose built ‘rain garden’ will ensure that stormwater leaving the Wallan site will be naturally filtered and cleaned before entering nearby waterways. It will do this by using plants, sand and locally sourced organic mulch to filter impurities from the water. Water runoff from the roofs of buildings and waste areas will be channelled into the rain garden.
Council’s Waste Management Officer, John Smyth, has played a central role in the project. He emphasised that the facility’s innovative design moves it beyond traditional transfer stations, and places it in a new category of waste facility that focuses on resource recovery.
“In planning the Wallan Resource Recovery Centre, we have left behind old ideas and taken advantage of the opportunity this greenfield site has presented,” John Smyth said. “Our approach to waste here will be on recycling, reusing and reducing, rather than dumping or storing.
“Mitchell Shire Council has benefited immensely from Melbourne Water’s involvement in this project and we look forward to commencing operations here later this year.”
Mitchell Shire Mayor, Councillor Bob Humm, is also Council’s representative on the Goulburn Valley Regional Waste Management Group. He has taken a personal involvement in the project.
“I have a passion for waste management and a concern for the environment,” Mayor Humm said. “The Wallan Resource Recovery Centre is going to be exciting on both these fronts.
“I would like to commend Council’s Parks and Gardens Unit, who will install and maintain the rain garden. It is great that Council has this expertise inhouse.”
For further information contact Daniel Scoullar, Public Relations Officer, at Mitchell Shire on (03) 5734 6359.
