News Alert |

City of Ballarat Mayor Samantha McIntosh has visited the Cornwall Energy Recovery Centre, which converts 240,000 tonnes of non-recyclable rubbish to energy each year.

The plant, part owned by the Cornwall Council, also exports 16.6 megawatts of energy to the grid – enough to power the equivalent of 21,000 homes.

After the rubbish is burnt, the non-toxic bottom ash which is produced is further recycled, graded and sorted in an adjacent factory to produce 65,000 tonnes of aggregate per year for use in construction and road building.

Cr McIntosh said the plant was clean, had no odour or visible emissions and employed 45 local people, many of whom were former submariners with experience in dealing with steam and boiler systems.

The plant was built beside a large factory which houses furnaces for firing China Clay and there is a conduit built between the two sites for the use of the plant’s steam.

There is also a consortium currently considering the use of the steam for hydroponics or other purposes.

Now the plant has been operational for over a year, the only remaining Cornwall landfill site will close at the end of this year, with the Cornwall Energy Recovery Centre also taking extra commercial and industrial waste from other regions.

Cr McIntosh said the plant’s management placed significant emphasis on being engaged with the community, waste related education and transparency.

They encourage visits and tours, have a full-time education officer who hosts school groups (waste management is part of the United Kingdom’s school curriculum) in a purpose-built education centre and who provides education on the full spectrum of avoiding waste production, reducing waste, reusing and recycling.

Cr McIntosh said it would be well worth investigating if a similar education centre to teach Australian children about best practice waste programs could be established at any Waste to Energy facility built in Ballarat.

There are also houses quite close to the plant, and a small village at the entry driveway, with the facility hosting community carols singing and Christmas celebrations on the site as well.

They also support a community grants program.

“It was a very important discussion and case study regarding how a new energy recovery centre has engaged with a local community and put significant resources over a long period of time into education and gaining community support,” Cr McIntosh said.

“There was much to learn for the Ballarat community about how the actual Waste to Energy plant worked and how the council, private operator and community can work in partnership to understand the role energy recovery can play in overall waste management.

“We were given fact sheets, booklets and other really good educational materials we can adapt for local use. An interesting stat we learnt was that the Bristol Energy Recovery Centre receives a train every night with 73 carriages of containerised rubbish from London.”

Cr McIntosh was also hosted at the Peterborough Energy Recovery Centre by Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad General Manager Special Projects Dennis Tan and Viridor (operator) Performance Improvement Manager Phil Jenkinson.

The 72-million-pound Waste to Energy plant has been handling all of Peterborough’s non-recyclable household waste since 2016.

The technology used was provided by Babcock & Wilcox Volund, which is the same as that proposed for the BWEZ Waste to Energy plant.

The very detailed and technical tour was an important opportunity for the Mayor to better understand how the BWEZ plant may ultimately operate, including a comprehensive look at all stages of the energy recovery process.

The plant is fully owned by the Peterborough City Council and contributes all power generated back into a local power network.

“It was clean, it was efficient, and we were told it has raised few concerns in the community,” Cr McIntosh said.

“There is also a strong education focus, with the site containing an education centre and regularly hosting education visits and site tours by local residents, schools and interest groups.”