The State Government’s plan to increase recycling of construction and demolition waste has been given a boost with the opening of the state’s first holistic processing system.
Instant Waste Management has opened a new materials waste facility which can simultaneously process both recyclable and non-recyclable construction and demolition waste.
Whereas previously the onus had been on builders and developers to separate waste at the source, the facility means all waste can be dumped in one bin and sorted at the Instant Waste site in Bayswater.
The company has invested $10 million in the new facility, which will be capable of processing about 200,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste once ramp up is complete in eight weeks’ time.
About 90 per cent of that waste will be recycled into usable materials such as sand and road base, with ten per cent being sent to landfill until a waste to energy solution can be found.
Over 2009/10 Western Australia produced about 4.4 million tonnes of construction and demolition waste – more than half the total waste generated.
About 29 per cent of that was recycled. The State Government’s plan is to increase that recycling rate to 60 per cent in the next two years and to 75 per cent by 2020.
Improvements have already been made to the recycling rate with the Waste Authority estimating that about half of the construction and demolition waste produced in 2011/12 was recycled.
Environment Minister Bill Marmion officially opened the Instant Waste facility yesterday, and said it was such industry initiatives which would enable the state-wide targets to be met.
