I have written frequently in The Fifth Estate about the fact that New South Wales has an infrastructure crisis when it comes to managing residual waste streams. NSW is running out of landfills and has no (real) plan to have alternatives, like Energy from Waste (EfW) facilities, up and running in time.
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In fact, the state government has clearly demonstrated that it has no clue how waste infrastructure projects operate. EfW is a prime example. I wrote about this here.
In about 2022 there were seven or eight EfW projects (don’t quote me on the exact number) in the approvals pipeline. The government panicked, thinking that there would be too many EfW facilities and the market needed a regulatory response without which there “could be a significant oversupply of EfW facilities in NSW”.
That was complete nonsense then and it is complete nonsense now. Yet the government, in its wisdom, legislated a blanket prohibition of EfW in NSW to only allow projects to go ahead in certain locations which have been gazetted by the NSW EPA before an application can be submitted. I cannot think of any other essential service that has so many hurdles put in front of it. Can you?
So – where will our residual waste go then?
The government killed the best possible alternative to landfills without having a clue how to get new landfill projects up and running. The government also did not understand that an approval application for an EfW project is not equal to one actually being built. Before any construction can start on a project such as an EfW facility needs to secure finance.
What the NSW government needs to understand is that with waste being an essential service, it is the waste and recycling facilities and their locations that need protection!
In infrastructure language that means the project requires financial close. How to get to financial close? You have to convince more than one financier to underwrite a few hundred million dollars. Financiers do not like risk. They only sign up after a detailed due diligence showing all approvals are in place, contracts for the supply of waste are signed, reputable suppliers and builders, ideally taking on as much risk as possible, are signed up, detailed designs for the facility are completed and checked by independent experts, and so on.
Obviously, location plays a major role in such projects and is seen as a significant potential risk. Would seven or eight EfW projects have made it to financial close in NSW? Certainly not. Given the complexity of getting such a project to financial close only a few, if any, would have made it.
Instead, now in 2024 we have zero EfW facilities in NSW and zero new landfills approved. Great outcome, government!
Now that the two EfW facilities currently being built in Western Australia are having “difficulties” (which is understating it) it will only get worse. Financiers will be scrutinising their potential investments even more thoroughly. That should be a reason for government to be worried, very worried.
With location being so very important to EfW projects, I am curious whether anyone will raise their hand to finance an EfW facility in Parkes, once that is announced.
The waste and recycling industry has the same problem all across the world. It is being pushed away from all other developments and pushed out of cities as they become more densely populated. No one wants a waste or recycling facility in their backyard.
What the NSW government needs to understand is that with waste being an essential service, it is the waste and recycling facilities and their locations that need protection!
The government still thinks the other way round. Terrible mistake.
A long time ago, the government understood waste was an essential service like electricity generation. It also has the right instrument in its quiver – it’s called special purpose zoning (SP) – and under this zoning, developments that threaten essential infrastructure are not permissible.
We need this now, for waste and recycling infrastructure.
And guess what? The government can easily do this by changing the definition of the SP2 zoning. And guess what else? We have coal fired power stations close enough to Sydney to make sense as locations for waste and recycling infrastructure, including EfW facilities. And guess what else? Those coal fired power stations are going to close down, one-by-one over the coming years. How about utilising that land for another essential industry that requires urgent attention and protection from our sprawling suburbs greedily gobbling up land?
We can do this now. Okay, tomorrow.
We also do not need to wait until the power stations have closed or are demolished. In fact, it would make a lot of sense settling new facilities into those power station sites as soon as possible, so existing infrastructure can be utilised. There are roads, water treatment facilities, reverse osmosis plants, even sewage treatment plants, grid connections, transformers galore, and so on.
The government would save a fortune by not needing to reinvent the wheel and buying all this stuff new. Time would also be saved on finding new sites, securing approvals and fitting out all the required infrastructure – much of it would already be in place.
How about thinking outside the box, dear Minister? A little bit of lateral thinking doesn’t go astray, hey?
Happy to help. You know where to find me.
