Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014

Waste to energy Disposal

Target Target
All timber not suitable for recycling will be used All C and D waste will be disposed of safely.
for waste to energy.
How will we get there?
How will we get there? The landfills are a safe option for dealing with
Currently, the majority of damaged pallets the residual C and D if regulated adequately.
etc gets shredded and sent to a Waste to The big issue is domestic asbestos and
Energy plant. Collection and shredding will be unlicensed removal as it can affect the waste
expanded and either sent there or to a similar workers as well as the occupants of the
facility on the Sunshine Coast. renovated houses. Since this is a state-wide
issue, it makes more sense to address it
from that level but, if the state Government is
unwilling to act, the SCRC will look at using a
Local Law to similar effect.

Table 22: C and D Wastes: Waste to energy implementation Priority When KPI
Low 2010>> Annual data
Actions
Medium 2011 All facilities
Keep data on volumes to inform a future decision on waste to constructed
energy on the Coast.

Ensure all RRC’s have a stockpile area to keep timber not
suitable for recycling.

Table 23: C and D wastes: Disposal implementation Priority When KPI
Actions High 2010
Lobby State Govt to regulate asbestos removal by DIY High 2011 Home removal
owners. banned
Participate in media campaign about the dangers of home Medium 2012>>
handyman asbestos removal. Campaign
implemented,
Ensure C and D landfills are regulated under Town Plan. 50 per cent
recognition

Policy adopted

Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014 51

8 Facilities

52 Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014

The SCRC operates a number of Resource Resource Recovery Centres
Recovery Centres as well as four landfills.
The Resource Recovery Centres vary Target
between passive drop-off bins with little
or no recycling to sophisticated facilities All Resource Recovery Centres operating
with strong diversion and education role. at 'best practice' diversion with long term
Those resource recovery centres will need contracts, strong waste diversion, education
to be up-graded to integrate with the other and community management.
aims of the Strategy such as community
involvement and greater waste diversion. How will we get there?

Even if council implements all diversion Council is going to review all the facilities to
including Advanced Waste Treatment and ensure they are configured and managed
waste to energy, approximately 30 per cent to divert the maximum volumes of material.
of the mass of waste still requires disposal. Wherever possible, the facilities management
Disposal options will remain with landfills but will be contracted to the local community
council intends to improve those facilities up to to ensure a strong educative focus and re-
the 'best practice' level with leachate liners and use training workshops where appropriate.
treatment and methane gas capture and use. Council also undertakes to provide longer
term contracts to provide an incentive for the
N.B. In future, council may well have an Advanced Waste contractors to invest in their human resources
Treatment plant, composting plant MRF and waste to and community education.
energy plant. These possible developments are dealt with
under their respective previous sections or the subsequent
Sustainability Park section.

Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014 53

8 Facilities

Landfills

Target
All waste disposed of in 'best practice' landfills
with liners, leachate controls and gas capture
and utilisation.

How will we get there?
Council will expand and up-grade the Pierce
Avenue and Nambour landfills to best practice
standards by installing methane gas capture
and possible utilisation for energy generation
on the older sections of the sites. Eumundi
Road landfill will also be up-graded to provide
renewable power from the methane generated.

Table 24: RCC facilities: Implementation Priority When KPI
High 2010 In 2011 budget
Actions
High 2010>> Contracts signed
Review the current facilities for convenience, hours of
operation, waste diversion, community education and High 2010>> Coolum RCC
involvement and infrastructure, beginning with the Yandina opened
and Kenilworth facilities.

Re-draft management contracts to require stronger
intervention, education and diversion beyond what is simply
financially beneficial to divert.

Construct a Resource Recovery Centre on the site of the
closed Coolum landfill.

Table 25: Landfill facilities: Implementation Priority When KPI
Actions High 2010/11 Extensions
'Best practice' extensions to Nambour and Pierce Avenue. 2011/2 operational
Flaring
Install gas capture, flaring and possible energy generation High 2014 commences
on Eumundi road, Nambour and Pierce Avenue existing Low
landfills. Council decision

Begin discussions with Moreton and Brisbane councils
about their willingness to utilise a northern SEQ regional
landfill.

54 Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014

Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014 55

Sustainability park

56 Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014

Council will locate a set of integrated capital expensive equipment such as waste
facilities at Sustainability Park to maximise to energy facilities. Council will require the
the diversion from landfill for all bin- potential partners to show existing examples
collected wastes. There may also be other of successful similar facilities being operated
wastes received if opportunities arise. elsewhere.

Council will seek a long term private sector By appointing an overall head contractor for
partner to 'Build, own and operate (BOO)' an the Park, council avoids the issues of poor
integrated chain of plants to receive waste integration and relationships that can impact on
from the kerbside trucks, sort it, recycle the these multi-function sites. Alliance contracting is
resources, generate power and steam, and a methodology that has proved very successful
then load the 20-30% remaining residual waste in reducing costs, accommodating emerging
for transport to a 'best practice' landfill. issues and forging longer term relationships
and is based on a 'shared pain shared gain'
The partnership is envisaged to be in the model so both sides seek to minimise disputes
form of an alliance contract for 15 years with and self-serving behaviour. The process will
two possible 10 year extensions at 10 and 15 also capture the global skills and experience
years. The long time frames are necessary necessary for the Sunshine Coast to move to
to have adequate amortisation periods for the forefront of waste minimisation.

Building one Shopping centre House Factory
Recyclables sorting
Sustainability Park

Waste sorting

Energy Waste to energy Compost

Landfill Farm

Figure 6: Waste to Resource and Energy Recovery at Sustainability Park

Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014 57

9 Sustainability park

Target Implementation will be staged with the first
facilities possibly being the construction of a
The Sustainability Park will provide a well composting facility to handle the existing garden
buffered hub of facilities, public and private waste collection.
enterprises and employment opportunities to
capitalise on the resources in our wastes and to As the collection contracts do not change until
provide an income for council from sale or lease 2014, it is envisaged that the Sustainability
of the balance of the site to augment the costs Alliance will be sufficiently advanced to
of managing the region’s waste. determine the appropriate collection system and
routing. At that point, council would be expecting
How will we get there? to have most, if not all of the chain of processes
scoped, assessed and determined by council
Council will go to the market for a 'Sustainability and its partner, in place and operating.
Partner' in early 2010, seeking the following
priority outcomes (amongst others):

1 70 per cent + of received waste diverted
from landfill

2 Strong contribution to Coast’s sustainable
economy including:

re-manufacturing of recovered resources
soil improvement and renewable energy

3 No off-site negative environmental or
amenity impacts from the facility

4 Minimal additional cost to residents

5 Low carbon footprint.

Table 26: Sustainability park: Implementation Priority When KPI
High 2010 Criteria accepted
Actions High 2010
Develop key criteria for 'sustainability partner'. High 2010 Outcomes accepted
Develop priority outcomes for Sustainability Park High 2010
Collect all appropriate data. High 2011 Data set complete
Call EoI for potential Sustainability Partner. High 2012
Develop Implementation plan for Sustainability Park. Partner selected
Determine appropriate collection contract criteria to High 2014
complement Park facilities. Plan accepted
Complete construction.
Specifications
complete

Facilities ready for
new collection system

58 Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014

Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014 59

Services

60 Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014

Council offers a wide spectrum of services By 2014, there will be a standard kerbside
ranging from advisory, kerbside to facility- service that encourages diversion. Currently,
based. Many of these services are unknown it looks like consisting of:
to the businesses and residents nor do they
know how to access the information. There ●● A weekly 140L waste bin
is still considerable difference across our
new regional council relating to the existing ●● A fortnightly 240L recycling bin
contracts from the pre-amalgamation
situation. There is also a perceived lack of ●● An optional fortnightly 240L garden waste bin.
flexibility in service options that is related to
both ignorance of the current systems and However, final configuration will be determined
the 'one size fits all' contracts. through trials, infrastructure decisions and
community consultation.
Some of those may need to remain until new
contracts are let in 2014. However, SCRC will do Council will endeavour to provide a suite of
the best it can to ensure harmony between the flexible services of varying size bins with
old jurisdictions to reduce customer confusion. corresponding charges to ensure those who
produce less waste do not have to subsidise
Target those who produce more. Additional waste
disposal will be available as a 240L bin but at a
A safe, convenient and efficient suite of options significant price increment. Additional recycling
to service the different needs of the businesses capacity will also be available at a subsidised
and residents. cost.

How will we get there? Business will be offered more flexible collection
arrangements which may involve capacity or
Council will review its current services to frequency of collection and specialised services
ensure that the next round of contracts delivers such as food or cardboard.
stronger diversion and more flexibility without
unduly burdening the ratepayers. Far greater effort will be put into communicating
the services that are available and to
maintaining a customer focus. Waste charges
will be increased to cross-subsidise recycling.

Table 27: Services: Implementation Priority When KPI
High 2010 Volumes of garden
Actions waste diverted
High 2010 25 per cent recognition
Expand optional subsidised garden waste service. in public survey
High 2010
Commission media campaign alerting businesses and Single system at next
residents about various service options and directing Medium 2010>> budget
them to information conduits such as web page. Best practice website
High 2012 with quarterly up-dates
Review all services to harmonise all possible variants Contracts signed
before next budget. Low 2014
Spec. in new contract
Review website to include better and clearer information
on the range of services available.

Tender new collection system to provide a flexible and
varied suite of bin sizes and Sust. Park requirements.

All commercial and multi-unit dwellings will be able to
access bulk bins and cross-subsidised recycling.

Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014 61

Pricing

62 Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014

Pricing of services will be used to encourage Target
behaviour change as well as recovering Council’s waste charges will be based on full
costs but maintaining the core principle of cost recovery with an incentive to recycle paid
'polluter pays'. This means that the more you from waste disposal charges.
dispose of and the more toxic it is, the higher
the charges. Pricing will also ensure that the How will we get there?
costs of future facilities are budgeted for as Council will review all pricing as an interim
they would with private sector charges. The prior to new contracts and services in 2014.
exception that SCRC will make to 'polluter RRC charges will favour segregated loads
pays' is with household hazardous wastes with discounts based on the proportion of
because it wishes to encourage residents recyclables easily identifiable in the load.
to self-deliver rather than put pesticide
containers etc into their waste bin. Council
needs to build flexibility into services to
accommodate different needs.

As it does now, council will also use disposal
charges to subsidise recycling charges. Self-
delivered wastes will also be priced according
to the segregation of the load to enable simple
recycling and assessment of recyclables versus
disposal.

Council will endeavour to apply full cost pricing
for each suite of services it provides so as not to
undercut the private sector service providers. In
other words, the cost of a recycling and disposal
service will reflect the total cost with the disposal
element subsidising the recycling element.

As mentioned before, the pricing will reflect the
principle of polluter pays and the array of bin
sizes will be priced accordingly.

Table 28: Pricing: Implementation Priority When KPI
Medium 2010 Procedures
Actions reviewed
High 2010 Volumes diverted
Review weighbridge procedures to incorporate incentives to
segregate and recycle. Low 2013 Charges ready for
new contract
Expand the garden waste service by subsidising from
disposal charges.

Review waste charges to reflect a choice of bin sizes and
collection frequencies.

Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014 63

Governance

64 Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014

Governance of the system involves deciding for council to use its regulatory powers to gain a
how best to ensure the waste strategy, market advantage.
which covers a multitude of functional
branches, gets implemented effectively. The Council will review its waste administration in
waste 'business' within council has primary 2010 in line with National Competition Policy
responsibility but, has sometimes defaulted after the Strategy has been adopted. That
to a narrower view of waste management will determine the bureaucratic structure. The
and has been unable to engage other SCRC is moving to a model where it will form
areas to contribute to the wider outcomes. partnerships with the best of the private sector.
Previous councils have also taken a narrow This has been done in the past and has proved
view of waste at times, seeing it as a cash successful at times but each 'partnership' must
cow to cross-subsidise rates revenue at be thoroughly examined for its implications to
the expense of improvements to the waste council’s budget and future flexibility.
system. Council must ensure that its vision
of becoming the most sustainable region is Without pre-empting that National Competition
fulfilled and that council staff have priorities Policy review, council believes that the best way
consistent with council’s strategy. to ensure all the commitments of this Strategy
are kept relevant and alive will be through
There is also the need for a stronger regulatory a regular annual review process involving
effort by council in controlling illegal dumping external experts, transparency and community
and requiring recycling by operators here on the accountability. As MacArthur said “Planning is
Coast. It is against National Competition Policy everything… the Plan is nothing.”

Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014 65

Governance

Target
A clear system of monitoring and reporting from
a sustainability perspective and a transparent
community assisted annual review of the
Strategy.

How will we get there?
Council will maintain an active partnership with
the community through a process of a simple
annual report against the KPI’s of the Strategy.
The report will be scrutinised by appropriate
external experts, suggestions gathered and
a small community panel will review those for
incorporation into the following year’s budget
proposals. This will need to be in the 3rd quarter
to mesh with the budget of the following year.

Shifting subsidies

Changing the rules Design for the environment

Jobs from discards Clean production

Resource recovery centers Distribution

Producer responsibility Empowered consumer

Figure 7: The waste management governance environment

Table 29: Governance: Implementation

Actions Priority When KPI
High 2010>> Report published
Establish a simple checklist of Strategy KPI’s to review and annually
report to council in October each year. 2010>> Biennial review

Review the Strategy every 6 months with involvement of High 2010 EoI specifications
community members and ext. Experts.

Develop a clear understanding of the opportunities and High

threats of pursuing 'partnering' or 'alliance' style contracts with

private sector waste providers.

66 Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014

Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014 67

Data management

68 Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014

Sound data is the key to maximising Target
performance. Financial data will need to be
closely monitored. Unfortunately, reliable Council maintains sufficient data to be able to
waste stream data is very expensive to measure and manage the implementation of the
source. Waste characterisation studies are Strategy.
notoriously unreliable and can only deliver
robust data over time and many iterations. How will we get there?

The coming phase of waste management with Council will collect data relating to each target
extensive tendering and partnering negotiations set in this Strategy. As well as maintaining and
will require excellent data. Private companies analysing weighbridge data, it will commission
will need to know with the closest accuracy annual waste characterisation audits of both
the nature and volumes of the various waste self-delivered and kerbside systems. These
streams. Council will need to know what people will be done at the same time each year to the
want. Some of the programs for reduction and same methodology to generate reliable trend
recycling will take a number of years to come data. The analysis will inform the annual review
to full effect so trend data will also impact on of the Strategy.
decisions. High capital cost infrastructure such
as AWTs and Waste to energy plants requires
the most accurate data.

Just as importantly, good trend data will be
essential to assessing progress and fine-
tuning the various programs. This means that
a far greater emphasis will be needed on data
gathering, analysis and validation than has
occurred in the past.

Table 29: Data: Implementation

Actions Priority When KPI
2010>> Template and
Develop a monitoring and analytical process for each target set High 2010 system functioning
in this Strategy.
2010 Reliable data
Standardise all weighbridge data and analyse each quarter High 2010 analysed regularly
to inform the Strategy review process and commercial
negotiations. Annual Waste
survey report
Perform an annual waste characterisation survey of kerbside High
and self-delivered wastes. 6 monthly surveys

Survey the community to assess education effectiveness and High
receptiveness to various possible initiatives.

Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014 69

Glossary

Alliance contracts Leachate

A relatively recent form of contracting that is used The fluids generated by the decomposition of
for situations where the scope of the contract organic matter. It usually contains significant
can change significantly or data is uncertain. It is concentrations of nutrients which can lead to
closer to a commercial partnership than the old contamination of groundwater and waterways.
style 'master – slave' style of tender and contract.
It usually involves some shared decision-making Material recovery facilities (MRF)
and a 'pain and gain share' arrangement to
apportion equally the financial consequences. These are facilities designed to separate the
recycled materials placed in the kerbside yellow
Alternative or Advanced Waste Treatment top bins.
(AWT)
National Competition Policy
Usually a high technology facility or chain of
facilities that diverts significant proportion of waste Legislation and guidelines designed to provide an
from disposal through biological, mechanical equal commercial framework to allow private and
and thermal processes. These are increasingly public sector entities to compete with similar cost
popular in NSW to avoid the landfill levy costs. structures.

Compost Residual waste

Organic material that has been digested by micro- The waste remaining after reduction, recycling
organisms or worms. Compost is considered and waste to energy processes.
'stable' in that it has had its nutrients incorporated
into more complex and non-polluting compounds Resource Recovery Centres
and will not produce significant volumes of
methane or carbon dioxide through further These are facilities which receive self-delivered
degradation. wastes and recyclates for the council. Some have
developed shops for second hand goods and
Carbon footprint workshops to repair the damaged goods, train the
community and recycle and market composts.
The Carbon Dioxide equivalent of the energy used
in a specific situation. The measure is designed to Sustainability
provide an indication of the contribution to climate
change. Waste is a particularly heavy contributor “A sustainable Sunshine Coast Regional
due to the methane emissions which have a Council will strengthen the economy, enhance
negative effect equal to between 21 to 25 times the environment and protect the character and
as bad as carbon dioxide. identity of the communities.”
SCRC Statement of Proposals
Eco-efficiency
Waste Reduction
The process of delivering the same outputs using
less resources. Various programs such as eco- Waste reduction in this document refers to any
Biz provide advice to business on ways to reduce action that can reduce the wastes being received
energy, water, material use or waste production. by the council into its collection or facilities.

EoI

An expression of interest which is a formal
process for council to establish which companies
can provide possible services without the
specificity of a tender process.

70 Sunshine Coast Waste Minimisation Strategy 2009-2014



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