Dunmore Resource Recovery Centre one of three finalists in Australian Landfill and Transfer Station Awards

Shellharbour City Council is in the running for yet another national award, this time for excellence and innovation in waste management.

The Dunmore Resource Recovery Centre has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Australian Landfill and Transfer Station Awards ‘Excellence’ category, with the winner to be announced 27 March 2019.

The recovery centre was redeveloped approximately 18 months ago and is a fully integrated waste diversion facility that ties multiple levels of the waste hierarchy into a single customer focused experience.

http://www.shellharbourwaste.com.au/Dunmore-Recycling-and-Waste-Disposal-Depot

The redevelopment meant Council increased the number of materials that could be diverted from five products to approximately 30 products.

Some of the highlights of the fully integrated facility includes education and hands-on repair and creation workshops at the ‘Tinkerage’, repaired goods sales, expanded polystyrene recycling, e-waste, mattresses and Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO).

The shortlisting comes after the Shellharbour’s Museum and City Library recently won national awards.

Shellharbour Mayor said she was thrilled with the possibility that the city might score a ‘hat trick’.

“I am extremely proud that this state-of-the-art facility has been shortlisted for a national award. This facility leads the way in its scope of acceptable goods for recycling and reduction of waste materials going to landfill,” Cr Saliba said.

“The facility has delivered significant environmental benefits to the community and that is a credit to our city’s residents and Council staff.

Cr Saliba said the community had supported the facility as far back as 2009, when community consultation got underway.

She said Council recognised the need to meet the NSW waste avoidance and resource recovery targets and decided that a state-of-the-art resource recovery facility would be a key inclusion in the city’s waste management.

During the consultation phase, Council received over 2300 responses of which almost 90% were supportive of the development of a best practice transfer station facility that included diverse recycling and resource recovery opportunities such as FOGO.

Cr Saliba said the numbers supported the new transfer station’s ability to recover resources and minimise waste.

“Recycling volumes are up 47%, including the FOGO facility, while waste to landfill is down by 3500 tonnes, which is 64kg per household per year. These are results the community can be proud of,” she said.

Surveys conducted at the Resource Recovery Centre indicate that approximately 80% of customers had an improved appreciation of the site’s ability to divert waste from landfill and recover important and finite environmental resources.

Media enquiries: Kelli Wells 0448 361 008.