The City of Mandurah has reinforced its commitment to diverting landfill to a Waste to Energy scheme.
Mayor Rhys Williams said despite the state government's push for a one-size fits all approach to waste management, the City was already locked into a contract with the Avertas Energy Waste to Energy (WtE) plant in Kwinana which was signed in 2015 and it would be detrimental to leave.
"We have pushed to be a leader in waste management and are one of only a handful of local governments who are already on a mission to reduce landfill," he said at a council meeting on February 23. "The City is committed to our environment and we want to be even more ambitious and push even harder."
The State Government's Waste Strategy 2030 has three objectives: generate less waste, recover more value and resources from waste, and protect the environment by managing waste responsibly. As part of this, the Environment Minister has set up an independent Waste Authority to coordinate and implement the strategy, with one of its top priorities to have each local government create a waste plan that aligns with the state strategy.
The City was issued a written notice by the Department of Water and Environment Regulation (DWER) requiring it to prepare its plan, which was prepared as an interim strategy and endorsed by the council at the meeting.
The officer's recommendation stated the City's intention to review the plan over the next six months with an emphasis on exploring community-led initiatives for inclusion, progress on implementing the Waste to Energy project and a feasibility case being prepared for the use of the FOGO (three bin) system.
During the council's discussion it was highlighted that diverting organic waste to the FOGO system was likely to impact the City's ability to meet minimum Waste to Energy contract requirements, which in turn might lead to an increase in waste levies to offset the costs incurred.
It was also noted there was a risk of an oversupply of organic material which would be diverted into landfill, "which is the worst environmental result compared to the City's preferred solution of organic waste being treated at the WtE plant," the report stated.
An assessment of the Waste to Energy project has shown the energy plant will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the metropolitan area by 400,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to taking 85,000 cars off the road every year.
It will also generate the equivalent of 36MW of baseload electricity per annum to the WA power grid.