An artist’s impression of the new state-of-the-art recycling facility to be built at Hume. Image: ACT Government.
Waste management giant Veolia will build and operate a new $26 million regional recycling facility at Hume to replace the one damaged by fire in 2022.
The ACT Government has announced that after a competitive procurement process during 2024 it has awarded a 20-year contract to Veolia to operate the facility, which it will also design, with construction expected to begin in 2026.
But first the previous material recovery facility will need to be demolished, with work expected to start in the middle of this year.
The government says Veolia will bring world-leading technology to Canberra that will make this new materials recovery facility one of the most advanced in Australia.
The new state-of-the-art facility will create more than 130 jobs and feature advanced recycling and sorting technology such as laser optical identification and a glass purification plant, which will boost the amount of material that can be recovered.
It will sort paper and cardboard, glass, plastic, steel and aluminium and be built within the current bounds of the Hume Resource Recovery Estate in Recycling Road at Hume.
The new, larger facility will be capable of processing up to 115,000 tonnes of mixed recyclables a year.
The new advanced sorting technology, equipped with sophisticated automatic recognition, will use screens to separate paper, laser optical identification with air jets to separate plastics, and powerful magnets to extract metals.
The scene at the Hume recycling centre after the Boxing Day blaze in 2022. Photo: ESA.
City and Government Services Minister Tara Cheyne said the new facility would ensure the ACT had contemporary infrastructure designed to meet the needs of the growing region.
“The latest technology will deliver the capacity to sort, separate, and process materials for the whole Canberra region, improving resource recovery rates and producing higher quality end products,” she said.
Ms Cheyne said the centre would also include a new education space so the community and school groups could visit and learn about the circular economy and how recyclable products are transformed into reusable items.
The Boxing Day blaze was sparked by batteries in the compactor, but Ms Cheyne said the new facility would have state-of-the-art detection, mitigation and control systems to safeguard the site from fires, which can be caused by items such as lithium batteries or gas bottles finding their way into the recycling stream.
The fire burned for three days before it was fully extinguished, damaging about 80 per cent of the building.
The new facility will put an end to the ACT sending 50,000 tonnes of mixed-use recyclables interstate for processing annually, at a cost of $10 million a year.
Veolia CEO and managing director Richard Kirkman said the new plant would increase local recycling capacity, reduce transport emissions by sorting recycled items in Canberra rather than sending them interstate, and provide more jobs for the ACT’s growing circular economy.
“During the construction phase, it will create 112 jobs for locals and once completed it will deliver 24 permanent roles as part of the facility’s operations,” Mr Kirkman said.
Veolia also operates the bioreactor landfill at Woodlawn, 50 km north of Canberra.
No changes are planned to current recycling management in the ACT. The current contractor, Re.Group, will continue to manage interim recycling services for the ACT while the new facility is being built.
The facility is jointly funded by the ACT and Federal governments.
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