The Dubbo Regional Council hopes to get a firm foothold into the regional organics recycling industry with the opening of its new Organics Processing Plant at the Whylandra Waste and Recycling Facility.
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The Organics Processing Plant will process food and garden organic waste from Dubbo Regional Council, Mid-Western Regional Council and Narromine Shire Council.
A joint investment of more than $7 million by the NSW EPA, Dubbo Regional Council and JR Richards & Sons represents the significance of the environmental venture.
Dubbo Mayor Ben Shields said the plant accounts for council’s environmental responsibilities and provides significant employment for locals.
“The impressive part of the facility is that it has local workers, local infrastructure and materials, it is one of the most high-tech and advanced plants in Australia, and it is something Dubbo people can be proud of,” he said.
“This high-tech composting facility was built to handle organic material collected by three councils in the region as part of the new Food and Garden Waste Management service.
“It employs locals, and it is ticking all the boxes when it comes to our environmental responsibilities.”
Member for Dubbo Troy Grant said the state government investment into waste management across the region was important on a couple of fronts, one for good environmental outcomes but also good ratepayer outcomes.
“With this processing plant the cost in the management of waste will be reduced,” he said.
“This facility means we are a community now more in tune with the opportunity to recycle waste but also not bear the burden of putting waste into landfill as land becomes harder to access and the impacts on the land environmentally become more disastrous due to environmental impacts.
“This is a good regional outcome; it is beneficial to the central west, it is a strategic investment from the government to help the hip pocket of ratepayers and give them a better outcome for their waste disposal.”
JR Richards & Sons representative Greg Turner said the plant is highly effective.
“We can process up to 20,000 tonnes per year at this plant, and we would like to think we can encourage more opportunities to process more organic materials,” he said.
“People could do better with what they have been putting in their green lid bin but we are just kicking off with our education, and we expect that contamination levels will be low as time goes on.”