EMRC E-Newsletter - October 2011

1. CEO's message
2. Resource Recovery Project - Community Partnership Agreement
3. Resource Recovery Project - Technology options
4. Hazelmere Recycling Centre update
5. Perth Solar City Demonstration Project Launch
6. Act-Belong-Commit Avon Descent Family Fun Days - Another success
7. Impact of Carbon Pricing
8. Who's new to EMRC
9. Council and committee meeting dates

Welcome to the October edition of the EMRC e-newsletter.

EMRC's Eastern Hills Catchment Management Program (EHCMP) has recently been announced as the winner of a 2011 WA State Landcare Award in the Local Government Landcare Partnership Award category. EHCMP was recognised for the support it provides to its volunteers and community groups and the partnerships it has successfully established to deliver environmental initiatives including the Greenpage Newsletter and the Bush Skills for the Hills workshops.

Well done to the EHCMP natural resource management team for their efforts and contribution in making the program a success.

Congratulations also go to the Jane Brook Catchment Group, one of a number of community groups EHCMP supports, who were finalists in the Toshiba Community Group Award.

Finally, EMRC is pleased to welcome Marilynn Horgan as our new Director, Regional Services; I look forward to her support in progressing the team's key projects.

PETER B. SCHNEIDER
Chief Executive Officer

 

The Community Task Force (CTF), which works on behalf of and in consultation with the broader community in Perth's Eastern Region in relation to EMRC's Resource Recovery Project, have recently finalised a Community Partnership Agreement (CPA). The purpose of the CPA is to provide indicators which EMRC and the resource recovery facility operator can use to benchmark their performance on agreed social, environmental and economic outcomes and report these back to the community. The CPA will form part of the tender documentation, which tenderers will be required to address.

CTF members have gathered community input from their own local community links and used feedback from a community forum, held in September 2010, to prepare the CPA.

Regional community comment on the draft CPA, gathered during April-May 2011, was considered by the CTF in making adjustments to the final document.

The CPA is now available at www.emrc.org.au or by phoning EMRC on (08) 9424 2222.

For more information visit http://www.emrc.org.au/community-task-force.html or contact EMRC's Manager Project Development, Stephen Fitzpatrick on (08) 9424 2232 or email stephen.fitzpatrick@emrc.org.au.
 

Since 2000, EMRC has been working in consultation with its member councils and the residents of Perth's Eastern Region, towards developing a proposed Resource Recovery Facility (RRF) at EMRC's Red Hill Waste Management Facility. The purpose of the RRF is to complement the existing waste management solutions currently in place and deal with the waste that is left over once residents have reduced, re-used and recycled their waste.

At the 18 August 2011 EMRC Ordinary Council meeting, Council resolved to limit the technology options for the proposed RRF to anaerobic digestion and gasification; therefore eliminating pyrolysis and combustion as possible options.

The decision was based upon information received from acceptable tenderers during and after the Expressions of Interest phase; preparations for the environmental impact assessment; community engagement feedback; and advice from the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) during the preparation of the Public Environmental Review.

EMRC has undertaken extensive research on the technical, environmental and commercial information for all four technology options. This research indicated that for the scale of operations being considered, combustion technology would not present a cost-effective result for Perth's Eastern Region.

As EMRC will only adopt proven technology for the RRF, it was deemed that insufficient data is currently available on commercial-scale pyrolysis facilities to prove that this option would be a viable consideration.

Anaerobic digestion and gasification are proven technologies for processing municipal waste with many examples world-wide. At this stage, anaerobic digestion and gasification have been assessed as preferred options for the RRF.

Reducing the technology options from four to two will facilitate a streamlined environmental impact assessment process and refine the project's ongoing community engagement process.

EMRC is currently preparing a Public Environmental Review which will be submitted to the EPA for review; once approved it will be issued for public comment.

Following the environmental and planning approval process, EMRC Council will decide whether to proceed with the tender process. Acceptable tenderers will then be invited to tender for the preferred technology options and ownership options. The tender process will be overseen by a Tender Evaluation Committee and an independent probity auditor.

A final decision on the chosen technology will be made at the conclusion of the tender process in late 2013.

For more information visit http://www.emrc.org.au/technology-options.html or contact EMRC's Manager Project Development, Stephen Fitzpatrick on (08) 9424 2232 or email stephen.fitzpatrick@emrc.org.au.
 

EMRC's Hazelmere Recycling Centre is home to Western Australia's only facility to process industrial timber waste and is also the state's first Mattress Recycling Centre. Both projects were initiated to divert bulky, low density waste from landfill.

Hazelmere Mattress Recycling Project

EMRC's Mattress Recycling Project began in July 2009 and thanks to a $127,903 grant, obtained in 2009 through the State Government's Strategic Waste Initiatives Scheme (SWIS), EMRC was able to expand the mattress recycling operations at the Hazelmere Recycling Centre, after a successful three month trial.

During the 2009/2010 financial year a total of 8,457 mattresses were received from the entire metropolitan area for recycling, with this figure increasing by 9,950, to a total of 18,407 mattresses in the 2010/2011 financial year.

Hazelmere Wood Waste Recycling

In November 2007, EMRC began operating Western Australia's only facility to process industrial timber waste to divert low density timber waste from landfill. Following this, on 6 April 2011, EMRC launched a new industrial outdoor wood waste grinder to make the wood waste recycling process even more efficient.

EMRC's wood waste program processed a total of 12,229 tonnes of woodwaste at the Hazelmere Recycling Centre during the 2010/2011 financial year; up from 8,742 tonnes in 2009/2010.

For more information about the Hazelmere Recycling Centre, visit http://www.emrc.org.au/hazelmere-recycling-centre.html or contact EMRC's Manager Engineering/ Waste Management Services, Johan LeRoux on (08) 9424 2274 or email johan.leroux@emrc.org.au.
 

Perth Solar City is an Australian Government funded program, which is designed to help the local community, governments and businesses to understand practical and creative ways to be smarter about energy consumption.

As part of the program, EMRC launched a new nine-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) tracking system at the Red Hill Waste Management Facility on Friday, 26 August 2011. This initiative complements the nine-kilowatt PV system installed at EMRC's Belmont Administration Office in March 2011 and demonstrates the commitment EMRC is making to build a sustainable future for Perth's Eastern Region.

The two solar PV systems are estimated to save just under $8,000 per annum and 31,810 kilograms of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to taking 10 cars off of the road.

LCD monitors have been installed at both sites to show visitors the benefits of adopting renewable energy, by displaying information about the power generation, energy and greenhouse gas abatement that the PV systems are generating.

Residents in Perth's Eastern Region can become involved in the Perth Solar City Program by visiting www.perthsolarcity.com.au or calling 1300 399 268.

For more information about the Perth Solar City Program, visit http://www.emrc.org.au/perth-solar-city.html or contact EMRC's Environmental Advisor, Erin Harrison on (08) 9424 2247 or email erin.harrison@emrc.org.au.
 

EMRC Chairman; Cr Graham Pittaway _OAM and EMRC Chief Executive Officer; Mr Peter Schneider, launch the new nine-kilowatt PY tracking system at the Red Hill Waste Management Facility.

The 2011 Act-Belong-Commit Avon Descent was another success this year, with the conditions proving to be ideal for the 124 kilometre race with 630 competitors taking part.

An estimated 25,000 spectators attended the five, entertainment-filled Family Fun Days which were held from 5 to 7 August in Northam, Toodyay, Guildford, Ascot and Bayswater.

The coordination of the 2011 Act-Belong-Commit Avon Descent Family Fun Days was achieved through the collaborative efforts of EMRC and the councils of Northam, Toodyay, Swan, Belmont and Bayswater. All of which was made possible through successfully obtaining a $250,000 grant from Lotterywest.

EMRC would like to thank Lotterywest for its support, commend the efforts of the councils and congratulate all of the competitors who helped to make this year a successful event.

2012 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Act-Belong-Commit Avon Descent and plans are already underway in preparation for this major milestone.

For more information about the Act-Belong-Commit Avon Descent Family Fun Days, visit http://www.perthtourism.com.au/avon-descent.html or contact EMRC's Strategic Project Officer (Tourism and Community), Samantha Robshaw on (08) 9424 2262 or email samantha.robshaw@emrc.org.au.

Roving entertainment at the Act-Belong-Commit Avon Descent Family Fun Days.

EMRC recently developed an issues paper regarding the impacts of carbon pricing on local government, following the announcement of the Australian government's Clean Energy Plan on 10 July 2011. The paper will soon be available on EMRC's website.

The paper highlights that the introduction of a carbon price mechanism will financially impact local government operations and the community. The benefits of the economic reform around pricing carbon will also be realised by local government, their local community and the global community, both economically and environmentally.

The cost impact of carbon pricing on local government will be comparatively modest. A number of different economic models project the region will experience energy increases equating to 10% in the first year, building cost increases of around 2% overall, and rises in the cost of consumables by approximately 2%. The main concern for local government will be the resulting addition of these costs to large state energy price increases.

Implementing energy efficiency and other mitigation actions early will realise both social and economic benefits to local government. There will be funding opportunities, such as Low Carbon Communities, available to local government to implement mitigation actions as well as economic opportunities to reform strategies and services in the transition to a clean energy future. These opportunities are supported through a number of schemes, programs and projects available through EMRC and government initiatives.

For more information about carbon pricing and its impact on local government contact EMRC's Manager Environmental Services, Naomi Rakela on (08) 9424 2273 or email naomi.rakela@emrc.org.au.
 

Marilynn Horgan was appointed as Director, Regional Services on 15 August 2011.

Marilynn's academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Business with a double major in Management and Human Resources and a Post Graduate Certificate in City Policy Study, which focused on the integration of economic, social and environmental factors for sustainable urban development.

Prior to starting with EMRC, Marilynn was an Economic Development Advisor within local government, working on industry and investment attraction strategies and initiatives.

Marilynn has had many years experience as the Executive Officer with the Perth Area Consultative Committee where she worked with many of EMRC's member councils, as well as other local governments, in developing and implementing strategic regional plans for the whole Perth metropolitan region.

Marilynn was a founding member of the Perth Economic Development Agency, advocating to state government departments and agencies for economic development and small business matters impacting at a local level.
 

EMRC Council and committee meeting dates for 2011 are as follows:

Commencing at 6.00 pm

Commencing at 12.30 pm

Commencing at 5.00 pm

Commencing at 3.00 pm