Tour reveals recycling facility on track for 2026 opening
Published on 26 February 2025
With an eye to be operational by early 2026, Councillors have today toured the partially constructed Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) at West Nowra to gain insight on the progress of the project.
After a pause in construction in 2024, Council supported a funding model to provide a shortfall of $10 million to enable construction of the recycling facility to proceed to completion.
Director City Services, Carey McIntyre said the MRF was well progressed and once fully built, will help keep the region’s circular economy turning.
“The MRF is a critical piece of infrastructure that will improve the region’s rate of recycling and help reduce recycling costs,” Mr McIntyre said.
“In a Shoalhaven first, we’ll be able to manage our own recyclable material in-house as well as being capable of receiving materials from across the Illawarra,” he said.
“With a processing rate of 15 tonnes per hour and expected annual capacity of up to 24,720 tonnes, the facility has the potential to be a real game-changer for how we process comingled products and divert waste from landfill.”
Mr McIntyre said the contractor responsible for constructing the building had entered into voluntary administration last year, causing Council to look at a number of potential funding options.
The total project cost for the facility and the surrounding infrastructure at the site is estimated to be $37.15 million. Since the project began in 2019, the forecast cost increased due to escalating construction costs, the inclusion of enabling site works in the project scope, and costs associated with meeting revised building regulations including bushfire regulations.
The funding gap was covered by a raft of measures including cancelled or postponed projects at the waste facility, land sales and value engineering (using different materials or methods without sacrificing functionality).
Councillors were briefed on how once operational, recyclable material in yellow-lid bins would be sorted on state-of-the-art equipment. Once sorted and separated, paper, newspaper, cardboard, steel, aluminium and plastics would be baled and then used to make new products. Glass recovered through the MRF will be processed in the Glass Recycling Plant and used in asphalt and pipe bedding for civil construction as well as the Green Ceramic MICROfactorie also located at the West Nowra facility.
Council has engaged specialist trades to complete the project which now sees the base building completed. Australian Bale Press is contracted to install the processing plant within the building which is nowunderway, and expected to enter into the commissioning phase in the second half of 2025.