Search

Winners of the 2024 Australian Resource Recovery Awards

We are an online community created around a smart and easy to access information hub which is focused on providing proven global and local insights about sustainability

07 Nov, 2024

This post was originally published on Sustainability Matters

The Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) has congratulated the winners of the inaugural 2024 Australian Resource Recovery Awards, announced in Adelaide on 16 October.

“The awards, which are part of the first ever Australian Resource Recovery Conference, recognise and honour those across industry striving to achieve our national 2030 resource recovery targets,” WMRR CEO Gayle Sloan said.

“Achieving the 80% resource recovery target requires significant local investment and a massive commitment to buying back what our essential industry manufactures. To do this, we need support across the entire value chain to ensure that our industry can compete on a level platform with virgin materials.

“We have a long way to go, but as peers we have celebrated those doing just that to make the future a reality. Our winners are playing their part in this challenge and inspiring others to drive positive change.”

The judges were impressed by the variety of nominees and the innovations being used to increase resource recovery.

The winners of the 2024 Australian Resource Recovery Awards are:

Resource Recovery Facility Award

Re.Cycle, for the Sunshine Coast Material Recovery Facility

Re.Cycle is a partnership between Re.Group and Sunshine Coast Council which runs an advanced material recovery facility. Opened in December 2023, it takes material from nine council areas and can process up to 250 tonnes of yellow bin commingled material a day across 10 material streams. Fitted with fire detection and suppression technology, it is achieving purity levels for plastic sorting of up to 98%.

Resource Recovery Innovation (or Project) Award

Port Pirie Regional Council, for its Weekly FOGO Transition

Port Pirie Regional Council, more than 200 km north of Adelaide, has only 17,000 residents. It has successfully transitioned to a weekly FOGO service seeing its kerbside diversion rate jump from an average of 46 to 67%, as well as a fall in landfill volumes by 38%. The introduction of FOGO has shown regional councils and lower socio-economic communities can achieve high-performing kerbside services that strongly contribute to cost-effective resource recovery — providing a potential pathway for other councils to follow.

Image credit: iStock.com/Lighthousebay

Pass over the stars to rate this post. Your opinion is always welcome.
[Total: 0 Average: 0]

You may also like…

Finland Shuts Down Its Last Utility-Scale Coal Plant

Finland Shuts Down Its Last Utility-Scale Coal Plant

The last utility-scale coal plant in Finland has closed. The Salmisaari plant, operated by the Helsinki-owned energy group called Helen, shut down its final coal-powered electricity and heat plant on Tuesday, as the country focuses on more renewable energy sources. As Reuters reported, Finland passed a law in 2019 that would ban coal after 2029. […]
The post Finland Shuts Down Its Last Utility-Scale Coal Plant appeared first on EcoWatch.

Top Benefits of Marine Lithium Batteries

Top Benefits of Marine Lithium Batteries

Lithium batteries offer a more efficient, maintenance-free, and longer-lasting alternative to sealed lead acid (SLA). Upgrade from SLA to lithium to save you time & money as a boat owner!

Boral secures grant for cement kiln carbon reduction

Boral secures grant for cement kiln carbon reduction

Boral Limited has announced that it has secured $24.5 million in federal government funding for a new cement kiln infrastructure project, which will enable it to significantly reduce its CO2 emissions arising from cement manufacturing by up to 100,000 tonnes per annum, based on predicted production rates.

The company says the kiln feed optimisation project at Berrima Cement Works plays a key role in Boral’s broader decarbonisation pathway by reducing process emissions — the largest and most-difficult-to-abate emissions source in cement manufacturing.

The funding announcement was made by Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen at Berrima Cement Works in NSW’s Southern Highlands — a site responsible for supplying up to 40% of cement in NSW and the ACT. The grant is from the federal government’s Powering the Regions Fund, aimed at supporting projects that will enable the decarbonisation of existing industries and contribute to Australia’s emission reduction targets.

The funding will supplement Boral’s capital investment into a new specialised grinding circuit and supporting infrastructure at the Berrima Cement Works. Clinker, formed by heating limestone and other materials at extremely high temperatures in a kiln, is the key ingredient in cement and is highly energy-intensive to produce. It is globally recognised as a difficult to abate manufacturing process, while also being key to all modern construction methods.

The integration of the specialised grinding circuit will enable Boral to substantially increase the proportion of alternative raw materials (ARMs) in kiln feed to up to 23% — up from its current 9% capability — and subsequently lower the amount of limestone used. The key benefit of utilising ARMs over limestone, is that limestone when heated during the clinker manufacturing process will natively release CO2 as the limestone is converted into clinker through calcination. Approximately 55% of the CO2 emissions of the Australia cement and concrete sector originate from this calcination of limestone and are commonly referred to as ‘process emissions’.

As an additional benefit, ARMs also require lower heating temperatures compared with limestone and, therefore, lower energy intensity.

Boral plans to use ARMs derived from a range of by-products from the steel manufacturing process and industrial waste rejections, including granulated blast furnace slag, steel slag, cement fibre board, fly ash and fine aggregates from recycled concrete.

The funding will enable the company to progress to the next phase of detailed process designs for front-end engineering, followed by procurement, construction, installation and commissioning. It is expected to be fully operational in 2028.

“At Boral, we have clearly set out the range of measures we intend to implement to meet the challenge set for us on reducing carbon emissions,” Boral CEO Vik Bansal said. “This is just one investment we have made at Berrima, building on our previous innovations around use of alternative fuels.

“As a result, Boral is on track to remain below the baseline safeguard mechanism requirements. We are also very pleased to be investing in a crucial and historic part of Australia’s manufacturing and construction sector.”

Image caption: Boral-Bowen federal government announcement. Image supplied by Boral.

0 Comments