Page 1961 - Week 07 - Thursday, 13 August 2020
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contamination rates and providing better quality recycled material. The optical scanning equipment will allow materials to be sorted into a variety of different plastic polymers for re-manufacturing. Mixed plastic is our most problematic waste stream and the only waste stream that is typically exported overseas from the ACT. These upgrades to our local processing infrastructure will set us up, ready to meet the challenge of the waste export ban so that we can effectively eliminate mixed plastics as a waste stream in the ACT. Likewise, washing facilities for glass will provide a higher quality type of recycled glass by reducing impurities in crushed glass so that it can go on to be used in a variety of different uses in building infrastructure.
Contamination of mixed paper and cardboard will also be reduced. Currently our paper and cardboard waste stream has five to six per cent contamination levels. While this is currently enough to ensure that it is recycled through the Tumut Visy paper mill, as markets improve with the export ban, our upgrades will reduce the contamination rate to between two and three per cent to ensure that this waste stream is recycled into the highest quality paper products. Undertaking these upgrades to the MRF will not only improve recycling outcomes but also provide up to 100 direct and indirect jobs in the ACT and the region.
MR GUPTA: Minister, what are some of the products being created from ACT recycled material?
MR STEEL: I thank Mr Gupta for his supplementary. The ACT government is committed to building a circular economy by using recycled material in infrastructure projects around Canberra. All the glass material that is collected in our household yellow recycling bins comes to the Hume materials recovery facility and we are now able to turn it into a new, valuable glass-sand product on site. While clean bottles from our container deposit scheme go on to be remanufactured into other glass products, glass-sand is made from the comingled glass that comes from our household recycling. Around 30 per cent of the content of the household recycling bins is made up of glass.
This glass-sand will be used by Icon Water as pipe bedding for sewer pipe infrastructure around the ACT. Following a successful trial, this has now been approved for use by the ACT Environment Protection Authority. It is a great recycling outcome because this glass-sand will replace Icon Water’s use of natural river sand that was being trucked to the ACT at a high cost both financially and for the environment.
The upgrades to the Hume MRF will provide glass-washing facilities to provide better quality crushed glass products for use in a variety of different infrastructure projects, from asphalt through to concrete for footpaths. Sand is an essential ingredient in these infrastructure projects and through this we are quite literally building a more sustainable city. These are just a few examples of how the ACT government is applying the principles of a circular economy, supporting better and repeated use of our valuable resources, with better outcomes for the environment and the economy.
Mr Barr: I ask that all further questions be placed on the notice paper.
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