The Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility
Urban Resource – Reduction, Recovery and Recycling
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility?
The Eastern Creek Urban Resource – Reduction, Recovery & Recycling (UR-3R)
Facility is Sydney’s first Alternative Waste Technology treatment facility for
household garbage.
It is the largest Alternative Waste Technology facility in NSW – and the southern
hemisphere - and represents the state of the art in modern waste management.
As an alternative solution in waste management to traditional landfill and bioreactor
landfill, the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility will divert around 80 percent of waste away
from landfill by separating out valuable products such as metal, plastic, paper and
glass, and converting the organic component of the waste stream into compost and
fertiliser products.
The Eastern Creek UR-3R facility is a public private partnership between Waste
Service NSW and Global Renewables.
To attract the large investment necessary to establish Alternative Waste Technology,
Waste Service NSW resolved to dedicate $500million of its future waste stream to
solutions based on alternatives to landfill. Following a worldwide expression of
interest, Waste Service NSW selected Global Renewables as its project partner. This
process was underwritten by the NSW Government.
The Eastern Creek UR-3R has been designed, built and is owned and operated by
Global Renewables, for the benefit of Waste Service NSW customers
Global Renewables is jointly owned by GRD, an Australian resource contracting and
development company, and Westpac’s Hastings Funds Management.
Where is the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility?
The Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility is located at the Eastern Creek Waste
Management Centre, on Wallgrove Road, Eastern Creek. The 5.5 hectare site is
leased by Global Renewables from Waste Service NSW.
Why do we need the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility?
With the global population on the rise, there is a need for better solutions to waste
management than traditional landfill and bioreactor landfill.
About 80 percent of the saleable products consumed in developed countries are
disposed of within six months. We need sustainable waste management facilities
that will increase recycling and reduce the environmental footprint of modern
societies. We want solutions that deal with waste as a resource without the need for
long distance transport and greenhouse gas emissions from obsolete disposal
methods.
Alternative Waste Technology facilities are the future of waste management and the
Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility represents the future of waste management, available
in 2004.
What difference will it make to our environment?
The Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility will initially process 175,000 tonnes of Sydney’s
waste each year (equivalent to 11 percent of Sydney’s household waste) and it will
ensure that around 80 percent of that waste never ends up in a conventional landfill
or bioreactor landfill.
The Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility will:
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divert around 80 percent of waste from landfill;
recover an extra 23,000 tonnes of recyclable materials every year;
reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 300,000 tonnes per year (an extra 210,000
tonnes per year compared to landfilling) – equivalent to taking nearly 50,000 cars
off the road
produce 23,500 tonnes of compost & fertiliser products; and
produce 17,000 megawatt hours of green electricity a year (an extra 12,000
megawatt hours than is generated by landfill) - equivalent to providing 2,250
homes with year-round green power.
The Eastern Creek UR–3R Facility will also reduce the social impacts of waste
collection and disposal. By dealing with waste locally and in an enclosed process,
noise, dust and odour are reduced. Waste is not transported over long distances
ensuring that our roads are safer and our air is cleaner. It captures 100 percent of the
bio-gas and uses it to produce green electricity – a significant improvement on the
amount captured from a traditional landfill or a bioreactor landfill. Recyclables that
slip through the kerbside recycling system are recovered, reducing the need for the
use of virgin resources.
The plant is designed to enable expansion to process up to 260,000 tonnes annually
(about one-sixth of Sydney’s household waste).
What is the difference between the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility, landfill and
bioreactor landfill?
Landfill is the traditional method of waste disposal, where household garbage
literally fills a hole in the ground. Today, all Waste Service NSW landfills use gas
extraction systems to capture methane for use as a fuel in power stations. This
generates 30 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power approximately
30,000 homes.
In a bioreactor landfill, 100 percent of the household waste also fills a hole in the
ground. The waste is then treated to speed up its decomposition through bioreaction
processes. Like modern landfill, a bioreactor landfill also captures methane and
converts it to electricity, but at a lower gas recovery efficiency than the Eastern Creek
UR-3R Facility.
The Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility is an environmentally sustainable alternative to
modern landfill and bioreactor landfill. Rather than putting 100 percent of the waste
into a hole in the ground, the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility will divert around 80
percent of waste from landfill, through the improved recovery of recyclables –
recovering recyclables that slip through the kerbside recycling system - and by
treating the residual waste to convert it into compost products. Refer also to the
Question on environmental impacts.
How does the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility work?
The Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility uses cutting edge technology to recover
thousands of tonnes of reusable materials placed in general garbage.
How it Works - The UR-3R Process®
The Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility’s groundbreaking separation process will recover
an extra 23,000 tonnes of plastic, glass, paper and metal recyclable materials each
year.
It then puts the organic portion of the waste - such as food and garden scraps through the ISKA® Percolation process that cleans and deodorises it before
generating energy from the liquid product and making compost from the rest.
The composting process is assisted by trillions of microscopic bugs that munch away
over an eight to twelve week period, until the resulting mulch can be used for high
quality compost products for agriculture and horticultural use.
The Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility is completely self-sufficient in energy and water.
By using liquid captured on-site, it takes none from Sydney's precious water
resources. It generates enough green energy to meet its own needs and feeds the
rest back into the power grid.
Has the technology been used before?
The UR-3R Process® was developed by Global Renewables by applying its sister
company GRD Minproc’s expertise in extracting value from mineral resources to the
urban ‘ore body’, ie municipal solid waste.
The main technology used – ISKA® Percolation - is based on many years of
research and development and now boasts two operational facilities in Germany,
with three new facilities under construction.
Who owns the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility?
The Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility is a public private partnership between Waste
Service NSW and Global Renewables, supported by the NSW Government. The
Facility has been designed, built and is owned and operated by Global Renewables
under contract to Waste Service NSW.
GRD Minproc, a wholly owned subsidiary of GRD, Global Renewables’ parent
company, was engaged to design and construct the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility.
When will the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility be fully operational?
Construction of the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility started in August 2003 and
commissioning commenced in August 2004. The biological processes, which take
time to develop, will be fully operational by mid 2005.
What did it cost and how many people are employed?
Costing $71 million to construct, the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility is a major
investment by Global Renewables in association with Waste Service NSW and the
NSW Government in western Sydney.
It employs 80 people and employed up to 200 during the construction phase.
What difference will the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility mean to councils?
The Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility is a win-win for councils, enabling them to meet
their environmental and economic goals, by delivering surety of service and pricing
well into the future.
While landfill costs must increase over time, the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility offers
councils cost-effective resource recovery and waste management for the longer term.
Have any councils signed up to use the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility?
In December 2003 Fairfield City Council became the foundation partner in the
Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility when it signed a 20-year contract with Waste Service
NSW.
Under the contract, Waste Service NSW will supply 60,000 tonnes of Fairfield City’s
waste for processing at the Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility each year.
What is Alternative Waste Technology and what is its take-up in Australia and
internationally?
Alternative Waste Technologies (AWT) provide alternatives to landfill methods of
waste disposal.
AWT have been under development for over two decades. Technologies include:
Mechanical treatment
Biological treatment
Thermal treatment
Combined mechanical-biological treatment.
Within Australia there are 6 AWT facilities, at the following locations:
Cairns, QLD
Port Stephens, NSW
Port Macquarie, NSW
Camelia, NSW
Stirling, WA
Canningvale, WA
Internationally, there are numerous AWT facilities.
What do environmentalists say about Mechanical Biological Treatment
technology?
In 2003 the Greenpeace Environmental Trust released a report into the process of
Mechanical Biological Treatment, essentially the UR-3R Process®. The ‘Cool Waste
Management’ report found that the process of MBT is “a safer and cleaner alternative
to burning rubbish in polluting incinerators or burying it in landfill sites”.
It stated:
“Set alongside an intensive source separation system, we estimate that a local
authority generating 200,000 tonnes of waste would have to send approximately
15percent of the total to landfill. In other words 85 percent diversion is quite
feasible…”
“MBT is not of course a magic box that eliminates the need for a final disposal option.
What it does do is greatly reduce both the quantity and toxicity of residual waste.”
Media contacts:
Peter Lewis, Waste Service NSW
Peter Eggleston, GRD
0413 873 285
(08) 9278 1888
Websites:
Waste Service NSW: www.wasteservice.nsw.gov.au
Global Renewables: www.grl.com.au