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Straggling councils yet to sign up to a key food and garden waste recycling scheme are being urged to get on board as the State and Federal governments chip millions into processing facilities.
On Thursday, Federal Environment Minister Tania Plibersek and her State counterpart Reece Whitby announced a $11.25 million joint contribution towards three projects — at Red Hill north-east of Midland, at East Keralup near Mandurah and north of Gingin at Boonanarring.
It is estimated this will cost a total of $54m and be completed by June 2025 — the year the State Government has set as a target for all local governments in the Perth and Peel regions to adopt food organic and garden organic recycling, or FOGO.
Mr Whitby said so far, 16 councils had signed up to the scheme, 13 had committed and five were “likely” to become involved.
“This is a firm indication and a signal to all local governments across Perth that the capacity to deal with FOGO waste and process it into compost is here,” he said.
“So there should be no doubt about the appropriateness of more councils joining.”
Mr Whitby said he understood some councils were wrestling with the “imposition of extra cost and changing over to the extra bin”, but that the $20m Better Bins Program was helping.
“Our message to councils is that your ratepayers want this to happen,” he said.
However, City of Swan deputy mayor Mel Congerton said that was true for some but not all ratepayers.
He said plenty already dealt with their organic waste via home composting and worm farms, others didn’t generate a large volume, while people who lived in units as well as households with tiny gardens didn’t have the space — or need — for an extra bin. And they were reluctant to pay higher rates for it.
Mr Congerton stressed that the environmental benefit of the projects was without doubt.
But after biting his tongue throughout the press conference, he unloaded about the Government’s $18m estimate for the initial phase of the Red Hill Waste Management Facility expansion in the City of Swan, which will involve constructing a building for anaerobic waste-to-energy treatment.
He said the cost looked set to be tens of millions more and while the City could meet some of that cost with cash reserves, the combined State-Federal contribution of $2m was piddling.
“I would have liked to have taken Tania aside this morning and said ‘you’re in a dream world’,” Mr Congerton told The West Australian.
“She’s doing lots of good things … but in this particular space … ‘Build it and they will come’? We can’t get to build it.”
If the State and Federal governments “provided even halfway matching funds” to the extra required, there was “a good chance” the project could be delivered by 2025, Mr Congerton, the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council chair, said.
“If that’s not the case, the answer is no. We’ll still be scratching in 2027,” he said.
Mr Congerton joked that all that was missing from the press event was a giant novelty cheque.
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Source: News