The City of Mandurah and Shire of Murray have stood by their decision to partner with a waste to energy plant following calls to ban federal funding for the waste management method.
In 2015 the two local governments signed up with the soon to be built Phoenix Energy in Kwinana.
The agreement will see the councils send their green bin rubbish to the plant where it will be combusted and generated into energy.
With contract documents expected to be completed in the coming months, Phoenix Energy is set to be the first of its kind in Australia, taking up to 400,000 tonnes of waste a year and turning it into 40MW of energy to be returned to the Western Power grid for re-use.
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However WA Greens senators Jordon Steele-John and Peter Whish-Wilson have said by backing waste to energy plants with federal funding, it would undermine the importance of recycling and reusing products.
As an alternative to funding waste to energy, the Greens announced a $51 million package administered by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) which could incentivise WA manufacturers to make more easily recyclable products.
Mr Steele-John said WA had the lowest rates of recycling in the country – 36 per cent – and it was critical that action was taken at a federal level to intervene.
“I am absolutely appalled that off the back of the senate inquiry into the waste and recycling industry in Australia, the CEFC announced they were open to using public funds to finance waste-to-energy incineration schemes instead of addressing our waste and recycling crisis,” he said.
“I’m concerned that waste to energy incineration will be touted as a viable alternative at a municipal level and ultimately undermine the imperative that we should consume less, recycling and reusing those products that don’t have to go to waste.”
Both the City of Mandurah and the Shire of Murray have said the waste to energy agreement is set to be only part of their waste removal strategy and would still emphasise the importance of recycling.
As it stands the City currently recovers about 25 per cent of its waste stream through its existing recycling services, but said this would increase to about 85 per cent with the Phoenix Energy plant.
The City also implemented a kerbside recycling service to the Mandurah community in 2000 and the waste to energy plant will have no impact on this recycling service.
“Waste avoidance is the ideal vision, but this is difficult to achieve particularly at a local level without State Government intervention,” Mandurah chief executive Mark Newman said.
“The City currently disposes of 43,000 tonnes of general waste to landfill and the waste to energy plant is seen as replacement for landfill.
“The City has always placed an emphasis on recycling and will continue with its current recycling services. It will also explore and implement new waste minimisation options if they are deemed to be cost effective and beneficial to the community.”
The Shire of Murray works with 10 differing companies providing specialised recycling services, with a focus on prioritising opportunities to recycle and to remove products from the waste stream.
Waste education has also been introduced as part of the Shire’s recently renewed kerbside waste contract, providing improved monitoring processes to assess recycling performance and opportunity to engage directly with residents for improved waste separation and recycling practices.
“Irrespective of where the waste is being delivered, there will always be an emphasis on recycling in order to better manage the reuse of relevant materials,” Shire of Murray chief executive Dean Unsworth said.
“A focus on waste minimisation as well as improvements to waste management procedures will always be a priority to ensure a sustainable future.
“Whilst recycling and waste reduction programmes will continue, council need to plan for a viable alternative to landfill for the remainder of the waste stream.”