Adelaide’s household waste will be converted to resource-derived fuel (RDF) under a plan for a A$50m joint venture recycling plant. The waste-to-energy plant will divert more than 1Mt of waste going to landfill each year. It is being built by Adelaide-based ResourceCo and the company has a contract to supply RDF to Adelaide Brighton, sourced from its recycling plants at Wingfield and Lonsdale..

The recycling park will be built on a 16 hectare site at Dry Creek in northern Adelaide, with construction due to start in January 2011 and launch in 2013, creating about 150 jobs in the process.



ResourceCo MD Simon Brown said “the fact that the SA Government had locked in legislation gave the go ahead a lot more certainty, in terms of committing capital, both from an EPA landfill levy perspective and also recycling targets and initiatives introduced by the SA Government”.



Last month the state approved the new waste strategy plan for the next five years and its proposed targets.

“We believe this recycling park will be an important driver to achieve the State Government’s recently released SA Waste Strategy 2010-2015,” said Brown.



The introduction of the Environment Protection (Waste to Resources) Policy has paved the way for the recycling industry to significantly increase its workforce and invest in additional infrastructure. So has the recent SA budget that increased the solid waste levy from A$26-$35, with long-term plans to increase it to "at least" A$50.