Australian waste as a mineable resource

More and more people would like to reduce garbage in landfills. We may recycle and compost, but a much trash still remains. In an ideal word, you might dream of recycling everything and then, laugh this off as a pipedream. Yet, your dream may not be far off the mark! Reality always begins with a dream. You make it happen.

Global Renewables Limited (GRL) is an innovative subsidiary of an old Australian mining company. It's Eastern Creek UR-3R Facility is a world first in Sydney, which gains international attention as it sets standards for diverting waste away from landfills through processing and resource recovery.

Back in 1998, GRL began exploring whether techniques its mining company had used to extract diamonds, gold and tin from the earth could be adapted to extract recyclable commodities from piles of waste. No kidding! This is really significant for Australia since among nations, only the U.S. discards more household garbage. One enormous landfill south of Sydney is ~50m high.  Some people consider it a more memorable view than the famous Harbour Bridge or local Opera House!

The Australian GRL company discovered its process can be extremely useful outside goldmines. Starting with the proven mining principle that the more reusable materials it could separate out, the more profit it could make, GRL built the southern hemisphere's largest waste facility.  Here, it recycles almost all waste received and incinerates nothing. Environmentalists are thrilled this pioneering firm treats waste as a valuable, mineable commodity. Now that's a change of pace!

To maximize profit, GRL uses efficient, mechanical mining devices to extract recyclable contents from inside binbags. Giant magnets remove metals- the plastic film that covers magazines and newspapers is literally "blown" out of waste heaps by heavy-duty cyclone machines.  Then, a giant vibrating conveyor belt isolates small glass pieces. GRL continues to investigate potential clients with a use for recycled plastic film, which the Japanese and Swiss already convert to biodiesel.

After GRL's initial mechanical sorting, more sophisticated technology takes over. Warm water is flushed into the waste mass through a network of underground pipes, creating a chemical process and producing a highly acidic liquid. This kind of glop used to leak from landfills and contaminate groundwater, but GRL's system accelerates waste decomposition. The pipes also collect biogas (methane and carbon dioxide), generated by rotting organic matter, some of which is used to power the plant. Recycling is definitely being taken to a whole new level.

After several days, the decomposed waste becomes sellable compost, or OGM (organic growth media). Rules governing the use of compost made from waste mean that it cannot be spread around agricultural areas but can be used to reinforce industrial sites, landfills and quarries. In Sydney, GRL processes 11 per cent of the rubbish, and the firm sells back 30,000 tons of organic compost a year. That still leaves a long way to go to recycle everything, but we're on our way!