New recycling plant to save Fraser Coast millions

THE Fraser Coast Regional Council says a new recycling plant will help save residents millions of dollars over the next decade.

photo of plastic bottles — Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com

Council endorsed funding the capital costs of building a new Material Recovery Facility (MRF) last week.

Detailed planning is expected to get underway soon, with the plant expected to be operation by the end of 2022.

NOW READ: Queensland cancels single-use plastic

Division 9 Councillor David Lee said the current MRF at Dundowran was at the end of its working life and no longer met industry best practices due to its configuration and the age of the equipment.

“About 32 per cent of the product currently going through the centre ends up in landfill, whereas with the new plant, we aim to reduce the level of contaminated product being sent to landfill to between 10 and 15 per cent,” Cr Lee said.

WATCH: Fraser Coast recycles enough polystyrene to fill an Olympic pool

“The new MRF will also give us more flexibility to meet changing markets and the potential to introduce closed loop systems such as turning plastics into park benches or planking, or crushing glass to create sand that can be used in Council projects.

“The cleaner the sorted material, the better chance we have of finding markets for the recycled product.”

ALSO READ: Art competition encourages people to rethink ‘waste’

Council will also save money by funding the building of the new plant.

“A financial analysis of the different funding options contained in the recyclables processing contract, demonstrated that we could save $7-million over the life of the 10-year contract by directly funding the building of the new MRF,” Cr Lee said.