Waste plan to power Bendigo

Bendigo Weekly | Bendigo Weekly | 17-Feb-2012

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A PLAN to recycle all of Bendigo’s kerbside waste, and use it to power up to a quarter of the city’s homes, could be given the green light within a year.

The plan involves turning all of the city’s household, commercial and poultry industry waste into energy.

It will be an Australian first, and could solve the country’s waste problems.

The process will produce either gas or electricity, both of which can be used in business or to power 10,000 homes.

If successful, the project will mean hardly any waste will go to landfill, will open up new research and development opportunities and encourage businesses to move to Bendigo.City of Greater Bendigo Economic Development manager Brian Gould said the project needed to be commercially viable, and able to work on smaller or larger scales, so it could be used anywhere in Australia. 

“We are being ambitious, but we want to show a leadership role on this one,” he said.“It is not just about Bendigo’s waste, but the rest of Australia.

“We will have a definitive answer whether we can go ahead or not in the next 12 months.

”Technology in the sector is ever-changing, and council is keen to attract the best companies it can to make sure it is viable

.“The potential for this project is ... that waste becomes a resource to generate further economic growth, and make a meaningful impact socially and on the environment,” Mr Gould said.

“We also want it to be able to be sold off to other municipalities.

“The first in any industry is where most of the research and development happens, so we believe that will be another bonus to the city.

Mr Gould and his team will thrash out every variable and investigate every possibility over the next year.

“We want to have robust discussions, have a strong business case and either kill it or green-light it,” he said.

“It will be the first in Australia to use multiple waste streams.

”The project involves various add ons to the waste destruction process, to allow for any emissions to be recycled or used up.

This could include a green house to use carbon dioxide emissions and any waste water to grow plants and vegetables.

The project will be able to process most household waste and that collected from businesses kerbside.

It will not treat industrial waste, but will be able to treat tyres, greenwaste, compost and tyres.

The council is looking at future ways to treat its waste, and has identified it needs a new option, other than the Eaglehawk landfill. 

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