What happens to the solid waste?
The general waste, as it is referred to, is picked up by the various trucks and delivered to the primary waste disposal site. In the case of Kempsey Shire, this is the landfill site on the Crescent Head Road.
The material is weighed on its way in and then taken to the waste face on the landfill site. Here it is tipped and then it is spread and compacted via the various machinery. Ultimately, it is blended with a mix of waste soil and is covered. The material that comes in is weighed and then entered into a register and this is forwarded every quarter to the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC). It is estimated that Kempsey Shire Council takes delivery of a total of some 19,500 tonnes per annum of general waste. Unfortunately, a lot of what comes in as general waste can be recycled or reused as other product. Kempsey Shire Council is investigating a better process to achieve a "separate at generate" policy at the receival points.
Our incoming loads run at around 10 tonnes per truck which equates to about 500 bin empties per truck load.
Other councils in our area are investing heavily into new forms of processing via "autoclaving". This process turns the putrescible wastes into a compost type form which can be mixed with other green waste or mulches to create "green materials" for the use in the landscaping industry or for use in areas of reclamation or soil erosion controls.
Recycling materials
The recycling material collected is taken to the shared facility known as a MRF at Cairncross by the collection trucks. By the way MRF stands for Material Recovery Facility. There the material is weighed on its way in and then tipped. It is then loaded into a sorting process whereby the various components are separated and baled. After which they are transported to the various recovery processors and made into new product. The new product can come back into so many various products.
The materials are sorted via types of products, eg the various PET type bottles mainly soft drink usage, the milk container, etc. By the way, the plastic in milk bottles is the only plastic that can be reconstituted or re-birthed into the original format, ie new milk bottles
But overall the products come back to us in many forms. So much of what you have, use, or even purchase today is or has a major content of recovered or recycled material. In the home for instance, how many items can you think of that may be of recycled materials? Garden hoses, the various plastic rakes, buckets, soap or detergent containers, wheel barrows, compost bins, various decorative pieces for around the house, garden lighting components and of course all of the usual garden watering sections from the fittings to the actual piping to curtaining, ie some venetian or vertical blinds.
Across the construction and say council environments, think of all those road and safety type signs you see. The large red and white crash barrier units that they fill with water, many areas of guide posts are made of plastic, the barrier material whether the red mesh or the basic Hessian look netting are all made of recovered materials.
Think of the various handles of tools, agriculture type piping, water, storm water, sewerage, gas air piping, plumbing fittings, etc. etc. The list goes on and on. In concreting and road construction the various water proofing plastics, the expansion joints, the chairs as they are called that the steel reo sits on are all made of materials recovered. Even the age old hard hat is made from reconstituted materials.
On top of this, there is also winter-type clothing known as eco fleece that has the equivalent of wool properties. This is issued to the workers in colder climates as it is somewhat cheaper and tends to stand up to rough tough-ware better than most other materials. It is actually created from recycled plastic bags. The beauty of this material is that it has no open or absorption properties so spills or water basically run off and therefore it dries so quickly. Also as air passes through or over the fibres it creates friction thus generating heat, pretty nifty isn't it!.
And finally a last item that you may not know about, the actual wheely bin we use for recycling and general waste is primarily constructed out of recycled material.
Other recoveries
There are other items we recover under the heading of recycling such as steel for instance. Due to the larger quantities of steel Kempsey Shire Council has combined with a number of councils under the heading of "Mid-Waste" to gain a major contract for the pickup of our steel waste from the area. This gives a much better return to council for all the work it does in collecting and separating the product. This type of contract is not unusual in relation to a number of councils combining ideas to get better results in this area.
One site you may wish to explore is the "Midwaste" website at www.midwaste.org. It should be very informative if you choose to explore it.
So there you have it. Council hopes this helps you in your understanding of waste management in our Shire. Should you have any further questions, please contact Council's Waste Management Co-ordinator on 02 6566 3200.
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