RRF Contract Signed and Sealed

Several months of negotiations and associated legal formalities between the MRC and the successful tenderer, BioVision 2020 Pty Ltd, have now been concluded.

The landmark agreement was reached after both the MRC and BioVision 2020 had satisfied a number of complex conditions and obligations, and details of subcontractors and their subcontracts were completed.

Work is expected to begin early next year on the new $80 million waste processing plant geared to reduce the volume of rubbish sent to landfill in the northern suburbs by up to 20 per cent or 70,000 tonnes per year.

The first stage of a planned three-stage Resource Recovery Facility will be constructed on part of a 10-hectare site in the Neerabup Industrial Area.

The facility will treat up to 100,000 tonnes of household waste annually and convert about 70 per cent of it into market-quality compost.

BioVision 2020 will design, build, own and operate the plant for 20 years.

BioVision 2020 has engaged waste management specialists SITA Environmental Solutions to operate the plant, and Canadian company Conporec to supply the composting technology to be used in the plant.

BioVision 2020 is owned by WA-based superannuation fund Westscheme and SembSITA Australia Pty Ltd.

"All parties involved in progressing this complex contract have worked tirelessly to ensure it is fair, reasonable and balanced," MRC Chief Executive Mr Kevin Poynton said. "We believe that common goals have now been achieved, and our communities will be the beneficiaries.

"This project is the singularly most significant development in household waste disposal and treatment for the majority of people living in the Perth metropolitan area," Mr Poynton said.

Until the facility begins operation in mid-2009, about 350,000 tonnes of waste will continue to be landfilled each year at the MRC's Tamala Park waste disposal site in Mindarie.

The MRC, the State's largest waste management authority, manages the disposal of waste generated each year by some 500,000 people living in the local government areas of Joondalup, Perth, Stirling, Wanneroo, Cambridge, Victoria Park and Vincent.

Community's Views Changed Project

Community input and feedback played an important role in the decision-making process throughout the project's planning phase.

The MRC sought the community's views through extensive research, surveys, questionnaires and discussions as it distributed information leaflets throughout the region, published project details on its website, and conducted focus groups, public information sessions and telephone surveys.

As a direct result of feedback from the community, several milestones were achieved:

• The location of the proposed facility was changed from Malaga to the Neerabup Industrial Area.
• Thermal processing technologies for the plant's operations, such as combustion and incineration, were discarded in favour of biological processes (with aerobic composting ultimately favoured).
• In early 2003 a Community Engagement Advisory Group was established, comprising community representatives from across the region, to provide the MRC with input on the community's views and values.
• CEAG then led the way in formulation of a unique document, the Community Partnership Agreement, which identified 20 different objectives and 66 associated outcomes that it believed the MRC had to deliver with the resource recovery facility in order for the project to receive broad community endorsement. CEAG continues to meet regularly.

In its review of the MRC's proposal for the facility, the Environmental Protection Authority praised the organisation for its proactive approach to waste management facilities and its comprehensive community consultation program.

"In progressing this proposal, the MRC has undertaken a comprehensive consultation which has set new standards for involving the community in the decision-making process. The EPA commends the MRC for the substantial time and effort put into this consultation."

MRC is the Customer, Not the Operator

The MRC and its community will be BioVision 2020's sole customer at the Neerabup plant.

BioVision 2020 will build, own, operate and manage the plant for 20 years under the contract signed with the MRC.

From the outset, as the MRC began considering in 2001 the prospect of establishing its first resource recovery facility in the region in support of the State Government's Towards Zero Waste management strategy, the State's biggest waste management authority decided that it did not want to undertake responsibility for building, owning and operating the plant.

"Our Councillors believed it would be prudent to appoint a specialist organisation to build, operate and manage the facility," MRC Chief Executive Kevin Poynton said.

"The MRC is a specialist in managing the receival and disposal of waste, but we have no expertise in operating plants used for converting that waste into compost or energy.

"As a Council, we have invested a lot of time and effort in seeking to align ourselves with the best operator and manager of the specific type of resource recovery facility that our community told us they wanted.

"We're confident we have secured the best organisation available to satisfy our needs," Mr Poynton said.

Neerabup Facility Different to Others

The Resource Recovery Facility at Neerabup will differ in many ways from other waste processing plants in Australia.

The MRC's plant will be built and operated using different project managers, builders, contractors, technology and supplier, plant operator, and management procedures to those employed elsewhere.

The MRC contract is a Build Own Operate (BOO) project - meaning the construction, technology, operation and management of the plant - and responsibility for its safe and efficient operation - is in the control of a single contractor. And, part of the contractor's payment is put at risk for inadequate performance.

The MRC determined from the outset that a BOO contract was most appropriate for its requirements.

The supplier of the Neerabup plant technology, Canadian firm Conporec, has a 16-year track record of proven success in supplying and operating similar plants in Canada and the US.

The operator of the plant, SITA Environmental Solutions, is a leading waste management firm.

The selection of the contractor for the Neerabup plant followed an exhaustive five-year process by the MRC, and came after an extensive tour in March last year involving some MRC Councillors and Local Government technical experts visiting several resource recovery plants operating in Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

"We discussed many issues, including environmental impacts, odour, noise, and operational efficiency, with representatives of local government and the communities living adjacent to those plants," Mr Poynton said.

"The feedback from those investigations was paramount in determining whom we wanted to build and operate the plant at Neerabup on behalf of residents living in the MRC region," he said.

The Environmental Protection Authority requires the Neerabup plant's odour management system to be reviewed by an independent third party prior to granting approval.

Odour Management

BioVision 2020 Pty Ltd selected Conporec as the composting technology provider for the Resource Recovery Facility, partly due to their robust odour management system.

The Conporec composting system is carried out in aerobic conditions to minimise the potential to cause odour problems. All of the RRF's operational buildings are kept under negative pressure, with several changes of air every hour. The odorous gases are collected as close to the source as possible and transferred to a biofilter for treatment.

A key element of the odour management system is ensuring the biofilter is effective.

The biolfilter will be designed to filter odourous gases collected from the waste reception area, the composter feeding area and the maturation area. The biofilter will be of sufficient size to ensure that it can effectively handle the maximum air flow through the system.

Dust particles are filtered out of the system using wet scrubbers to prevent the biofilter and the collection pipework from clogging. The wet scrubbers will also humidify the air prior to passing through the biofilter.

Maintaining the correct moisture content within the biofilter is critical in maintaining peak biofilter efficiency. The biofilter will be designed and constructed to ensure a minimum air retention time of 50 seconds.

The biofilter media will be a blend of bark, woodchips and other organic matter, which will be covered with an extra layer of woodchips to prevent winds from drying out the media. A sprinkler system will be installed above the biofilter to maintain the filtration media moisture between 40% and 60%. Detailed odour dispersion modelling has been undertaken for the Neerabup Resource Recovery Facility based on biofilter performances at similar facilities around the world.

Two odour dispersion models were created, based on 'conservative' and 'expected' scenarios. The predicted odour levels at the nearest future residential properties, based on the conservative scenario, will be well below the EPA's criterion for acceptable odour impacts from the Neerabup RRF.

Prior to construction of the facility, BioVision must engage an independent expert to undertake a peer review of the detailed design of the total odour control system, with particular emphasis on the design of the biofilter and the process control.

The peer review report must be submitted to the Department of Environment and Conservation with the application for Works Approval.

An independent expert is currently undertaking a peer review of the odour management system.

SITA Environmental Solutions, who will be the operator of the RRF, is a leading international waste management company with experience in operating RRFs around the world.

SITA is conscious that the community acceptance of the RRF at Neerabup is highly dependent upon the facility effectively managing odour emissions.

SITA considers that proactive monitoring of the composting process, including assessing the performance of the biofilters, is a critical part of the odour management system, with the aim of preventing odour emissions being released. In addition to proactive monitoring, regular odour monitoring will be undertaken at locations agreed with the Department of Environment and Conservation.

Risk Assessment Focussed on the "What-ifs?"

If there are any unanswered questions about the MRC's resource recovery facility project, Chief Executive Kevin Poynton doesn't know what they are.

The technology is proven, the facility's operators and managers enjoy a successful track record in waste management, environmental regulations and standards are not negotiable, contractual arrangements are close to being finalised and signed, the MRC's seven member Councils have provided financial guarantees for the project, community concerns have been addressed and adopted within the terms of the contract, and a continuing supply of feed stock (100,000 tonnes of household waste each year) is unlikely to be a problem.

"Hundreds of people, from industry professionals to consultants, technical experts, elected Councillors, Local Government officers and lawyers have had extensive input into the evolution of this project during the past six years," Mr Poynton said.

"While we've considered and reviewed an enormous range of issues related to credentials, capabilities and capacities, we've never stopped asking the 'what-ifs?' – what happens if this doesn’t work, what if that breaks down, what if they can't fulfill their promise, and on and on.

"We are confident our evaluation and risk assessment processes have been extremely robust and the prevention and response systems we have put in place can deal with any issues that may arise.

"Having said that, nothing is perfect, and we may have an unexpected problem or issue to deal with from time to time. I can promise our community we will handle and deal with any issue quickly, efficiently, effectively – and openly," Mr Poynton said.

Project a Credit to Local Govt Cooperation

The MRC's plans to establish its first resource recovery facility in the region succeeded only because of a genuine willingness amongst elected Councillors and technical officers from diverse Local Government Councils to work closely together, according to MRC Chief Executive Mr Kevin Poynton.

"They can all be proud of their contributions in delivering a waste treatment facility that should return substantial environmental benefits to the communities they represent," Mr Poynton said.

The MRC comprises seven member Councils – from Wanneroo in the north to Joondalup, Stirling, Cambridge, Vincent, Perth and Victoria Park in the south.

"While there have been some changes in the elected representatives on the MRC Council and in the executives and technical experts from those seven Councils during the past six years, each and all of them have been unified in their desire to proceed with this project because of the benefits it brings to the environment and in helping to sustain their communities’ quality of life into the future," Mr Poynton said.

"Certainly, there has been a huge amount of discussion and debate during the past six years on what was best for the community, and a great amount of information was requested and delivered. The MRC's project director, Mr John King, of the Cardno BSD-Meinhardt Joint Venture, and his team were kept very busy."

Cost Impact on Ratepayers

The MRC currently charges its seven member Councils a fee for the management and disposal of waste it receives at its landfill site at Tamala Park in Mindarie.

Council Waste Management fees are normally reflected and shown in the rates notices sent to ratepayers on an annual basis.

The MRC will also pay BioVision 2020 a fee for each tonne of household waste it delivers to the Neerabup resource recovery facility, and these costs will be passed on to each of the MRC's seven member Councils.

Those Councils are expected to also pass on all or some of those fees to their ratepayers.

Each Council will determine the amount of the increase it will charge.

While the MRC had no role to play in determining by how much each of the seven member Councils would increase their fees, MRC Chief Executive Mr Kevin Poynton said the fees would be likely to be relatively small when consideration was given to the benefits that would accrue to the environment once the plant was in operation.

"The overall waste management fee increase to the Member Councils will equate to the cost of a couple of cartons of beer or a visit to the hairdresser’s once a year," Mr Poynton said.

RRF Stops Wasting Waste

Resource Recovery converts waste into quality compost.

It means we send less to landfill, so we waste less waste. That's good for the environment because we put less pressure on it.

And, because the compost can be used to enrich any soils, we're also actually returning some quality nutrients to Mother Earth. That's good for her, great for us, and better for our kids.

About 70% of waste will be saved from landfill through the Resource Recovery process.

This reduces the environmental impact of waste and reduces the waste footprint for future generations.

In addition to recycling, Resource Recovery is important in our efforts to live more sustainably as a community.

It's in line with State and Federal Government priorities for waste management such as the State Government's "Towards Zero Waste" policy.

But more importantly, it is in line with what the community told the MRC it wanted done to improve how we deal with waste.

In an extensive community survey conducted in November 2005, a relatively large group (62% of respondents) said they were satisfied with how waste was dealt with in WA.

But:

• 49% were dissatisfied with efforts to reduce climate change and global warming.
• 42% were dissatisfied with efforts to get contaminants out of the waste stream.
• 40% were dissatisfied with efforts to turn organic waste into resources such as compost or electricity.
• 37% were dissatisfied with efforts to preserve the environment for future generations.
• 36% were dissatisfied with efforts to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
• 36% were dissatisfied with efforts to prevent local groundwater from being polluted.
• 29% were dissatisfied with efforts to recycle.

Resource Recovery helps with all of these because it diverts waste from landfill. How?

Diverting waste from landfill:

• Reduces the production of greenhouses gases, which contribute to global warming;
• Reduces pollution risks to local groundwater; and
• Contributes to preserving the environment for future generations.
• Reduces the need for developing future landfills.

Resource Recovery creates a valuable use for household waste, converting it into products such as compost or "green" electricity.

Household waste becomes a resource, not something to be discarded and buried.

The MRC's research found that 88% of households would be motivated to separate contaminants (such as paint and batteries) from their bins if they knew waste was being converted to compost.

The MRC's RRF contract with BioVision 2020 is the first step towards a new sustainable waste management future.