What you can do with big holes!
I&I remembers growing up (quite a few years ago!) not far from a big clay pit – the clay was used to make bricks. When the clay was finished, the hole was used as garbage tip. In a current variation the NSW Government has given the go-ahead for a $15.4 million recycling facility at Veolia Environmental Services' existing Woodlawn bio-reactor landfill, 250km south-east of Sydney. NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor said the proposal was assessed rigorously after being put forward late last year.
The Woodlawn Alternative Sorting and Processing (WASP) facility will be able to annually receive up to 240,000 tonnes of mixed waste and 40,000 tonnes of garden waste from the Sydney metropolitan area. "Recycled materials from this plant is intended to be used to rehabilitate disused dams at the former Woodlawn mine, or for commercial sale," said Mr Sartor.
"As Sydney grows, it is important to look for more innovative ways of reusing our waste. The waste recycling facility will be located in a sparsely populated area and will sort recyclable material from garden and mixed waste compost."
Veolia’s Woodlawn bioreactor landfill
Veolia has long planned the WASP at its Woodlawn Eco-Precinct, a former mine site that has been operating as a landfill since September 2004. The Woodlawn facility last week received top honours in the inaugural National Landfill Excellence Awards. Green waste processed at the site will be used to rehabilitated the former mine site, while steel cans, aluminium and plastics will be hand and machine sorted from the waste stream and then railed back to the Clyde transfer terminal.
The Clyde facility also won an Excellence Award last week, with the Waste Management Association of Australia clearly judging Veolia's combined facility a cut above the rest. The company has advised it will not seek to increase the 500,000 tonne cap on waste currently permitted to be transferred through Clyde.
(Extracted from www.EnvironmentalManagementNews.net)
50 Ways to Green Your Business?
Half-a-hundred options for cleaning up your business - from the universal (catch that rainwater!) to the specific (lose the plastic bowls!). As well as stories about truck efficiency and food processing it even covers what a concert promoter has done! Check it out here. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/50-ways-to-green-your-business.html
Going grey without the pension – a watery tale!
Queensland company EcoNova has snapped up four new contracts worth over $10 million to install its water recycling technology in facilities such as Hobart International Airport and a golf course in Sydney. EcoNova has been developing its MembraneSafe Technology into a greywater only system. The MembraneSafe system recycles grey and blackwater to the highest Class A+ in a three-staged, triple barrier disinfection process.
The first phase uses naturally existing bacteria (brought along with the waste) to create a biomass that digests the solids and almost completely eliminates sludges. It then filters the water through microfine membrane filters that remove all solids, bacteria, viruses, organisms and contaminants.
The final stage further eliminates any potential contamination with small doses of UV light and some residual chlorine for long-term storage.
Four organisations have just signed contracts to install the technology. The Clarence City Council in Tasmania has awarded EcoNova the contract to replace Hobart International Airport's secondary treatment plant, the council's lagoons in Cambridge and the Barilla Caravan Park lagoon system.
Gordon Golf Course in northern Sydney has enlisted EcoNova to establish a major sewer mining project facilitating new irrigation for the golf course. The sewerage treatment plant at the Gold Coast's Horizon Shores Marina development will also incorporate a recycling system for washing down the marina.
EcoNova GM Christian Uhrig with Qld Premier Anna Bligh
And in a sign of more support for the Sunshine Coast company, the Queensland EPA earlier this month awarded EcoNova a grant to embark on a $500,000 project to miniaturise the technology. The project will be used to develop a system that can be implemented in households across Australia at competitive prices and with reduced maintenance requirements.
(From www.EnvironmentalManagementNews.net) Just when you thought you could get away from text messaging …
Recent development testing of the Two-Way PED system at BHP Billiton’s West Cliff Colliery, near Appin, south of Sydney has confirmed two-way through-the-earth text messaging at a depth of 480 metres (1,575 feet).
Mine Site Technologies and CSIRO have reached an agreement to bring the previous research on two-way, through-the-earth signalling to a commercially available product.
Details at http://www.ferret.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=133989
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