Countries have been burning household waste on an industrial scale overseas for decades. But the technology has never caught on in Australia - until now. The first standalone waste-to-energy plants that will burn rubbish to power homes are in the final stages of construction in Western Australia with more facilities being proposed around the country.
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00:00 After years in the pipeline, this waste-to-energy plant south of Perth is just a few months
00:07 away from receiving its first household and commercial rubbish.
00:11 So the trucks will come in and reverse through these bays back to the bunker where they'll
00:16 tip their waste.
00:18 They've been burning waste on a big scale overseas for decades. Some of the latest plants
00:23 have even become tourist attractions. WA's version isn't quite as colourful, but it will
00:29 do a similar job.
00:30 Our boiler will generate about 101 megawatts of thermal energy and that will convert to
00:36 just under 29 megawatts of electricity.
00:38 This is one of two waste-to-energy plants that are expected to open here next year.
00:44 And together they'll process about 700,000 tonnes of waste a year and supply electricity
00:51 for about 80,000 homes.
00:55 For councils with landfill sites reaching capacity, the new plants can't open soon enough.
01:02 Landfill sites emit methane, which traps heat and warms the planet much more than carbon
01:08 dioxide.
01:09 We get our community to recycle everything possible that can be sorted out and not reused
01:15 and then anything that's residual going to the waste-to-energy plant, that's a good outcome.
01:22 But is it perfect? Well, no. According to the government's waste management hierarchy,
01:28 waste-to-energy is close to the bottom of a list of preferred options. Recycling, reusing
01:34 stuff or avoiding waste in the first place are all preferable.
01:39 Opponents say waste-to-energy will be seen as an easy way out.
01:43 What it is, is surrender. It is actually surrender. It's the total opposite of what we need to
01:50 be doing right now and that is knuckling down, redesigning products, investing in new technologies.
01:57 But proponents believe waste-to-energy will play a vital transitional role.
02:02 If we get to Nirvana and zero waste where everything could be recycled, arguably we
02:07 wouldn't need landfill or energy recovery. However, we're a really long way away from
02:10 that point.
02:11 The industry wants a national framework to fast-track all waste recovery projects, including
02:17 waste-to-energy.
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