City of Newcastle has accepted a $56.7 million tender for the design and construction of the city's first material recovery facility.
Australian-owned recyclables processor iQRenew will also be responsible for operating and maintaining the facility, which will be capable of processing up to 85,000 tonnes of recyclables per year, at the Summerhill Waste Management Centre.
The MRF will sort recyclables from residents' yellow-lid garbage bins into separate materials such as paper, cardboard, glass, plastics, steel and aluminium, which can then be on-sold to recyclers for use in the manufacture of new products.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the MRF would deliver a regional recycling solution designed to divert waste from landfill, cut greenhouse gas emissions and create local jobs.
"City of Newcastle is committed to delivering responsible, environmentally sustainable, and commercially feasible waste and recycling operations to manage our current and future waste streams," she said.
"The sudden closure of the only MRF in the Hunter in 2020 meant recyclables from Newcastle had to be transported to a processing facility on the Central Coast. For other local councils their recyclables now have to be transported to Sydney at significant expense to their ratepayers."
It is estimated that the council-owned facility will remove around 6,000 tonnes of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions over the next 25 years while also ensuring almost 200,000 tonnes of recyclables from Newcastle homes are diverted from landfill.
"Beyond meeting the needs and expectations of Newcastle residents, the MRF's scalable processing capacity and optimal location close to the Hunter Expressway and M1 will make it an essential piece of regional infrastructure capable of servicing the entire region," Cr Nelmes said.
City of Newcastle is progressing the design of a secondary access road as part of its Sustainable Waste Strategy, linking Summerhill Waste Management Centre to the Hunter Expressway and M1 following concept DA approval last year.
It is estimated the MRF will create about 185 jobs during the construction and fit-out phase and up to 28 ongoing jobs when it becomes operational.
Ninety-eight per cent of residents surveyed during the development phase of the project indicated their support.
A development application for the MRF is currently being assessed by the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel, with a decision expected in the second half of 2023. Pending approval, preliminary earthworks for the project would begin later this year with construction of the facility expected to get underway in the first quarter of 2024.
The project has received $5 million from the Federal and NSW Governments and plays a key role in the council's Sustainable Waste Strategy, as well as addressing future government targets on waste diversion and recycling.
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