City of Newcastle has lodged a development application for its new organics processing facility for food and garden waste from residents' green bins.
The fully-enclosed facility at Summerhill Waste Management Centre will be able to receive 50,000 tonnes of organics a year, which will be processed into compost for reuse in agriculture, landscaping and home gardens.
It is part of a plan to locally manage waste from all three kerbside bins, with recycling taken to the Central Coast, garden organics shredded prior to being transported 173 kilometres in a return trip to a processing facility in the Upper Hunter for composting and food waste recycling not currently processed via green bins.
The facility is one of four major projects included in the draft 2022/23 budget, with $9.4 million allocated to begin construction by mid next year.
The draft budget also includes $5 million dollars towards planning a new material recovery facility at Summerhill, with feedback being called for earlier this month.
Council's director and interim manager waste services Alissa Jones said the biggest cost from kerbside collections was transporting the waste, and the biggest cost efficiencies will come from co-locating these facilities at Summerhill, avoiding long-distance transport to other facilities.
"Building the organics processing facility at Summerhill will reduce both transport costs and current carbon emissions," Ms Jones said.
The organics development application will be placed on public exhibition in coming months. Early works associated are expected to begin towards the end of this year, subject to the project being approved by the Hunter and Central Coast Regional Planning Panel.
