Road trip time

The Bulla Organics Facility was opened in 2013 at a cost of $15 million by Veolia and is part of the ‘Eco-Hub’ operated by Hi-Quality Group outside of Sunbury, and processes 85,000 tonnes of green organics, lawn clippings, garden waste and food scraps annually; which are converted into 40,000 tonnes of compost and 20,000 tonnes of mulches.

Every day dozens of rubbish trucks from councils across Melbourne arrive at the site – such as Merri-bek.

Nillumbik.

And Melton – and unload the green waste onboard.

A front end loader then moves the piles of organic material into large piles.

Where contamination such as loose shopping bags is visible.

And plastic bags filled with who knows what.

So a mechanical screening machine is used to do the initial sorting of the incoming waste.

Fine bits come out the bottom.

And the big bits head into a sorting shed, where six workers spend their day stand beside the conveyor belt picking out anything that isn’t organic.

Dropping the rubbish down a chute into skip bins down below.

The contamination rate of incoming green waste is about 3% – so the amount of rubbish removed forms a massive pile after just a few days.

Once the waste has been screened, the wheel loader moves it into a shredder.

And then it gets moved into the composting shed.

Where there are 14 composting cells, each of 300 cubic meter capacity.

Incoming organic waste is placed in the cells and covered over, reaching a temperature of 55 degrees which is maintained for 72 hours to kill off any seeds and insects.

Seven to ten days later, the door is opened.

And inside is an immature compost.

Covered in fungus.

A wind shifter is used to remove any remaining pieces of plastic.

But unfortunately some still makes it through.

Then the material is sorted by size – the large pieces are mulch.

And the fines as compost.

Which is then stockpiled outside the shed awaiting delivery to horticultural businesses and broad acre farmers.

Fire risk and smells

Even after being removed from the composting cells, the material is still quite hot and emits steam.

So fire hose reels can be found around the site.

As well as a powerful fire pump system.

To control the odours inside the shed, a negative pressure biofiltration system has been installed.

Air being sucked out of the shed.

And pumped through a filtration bed outside.

And wheelie bins?

The biggest piece of contamination in the waste stream was something unexpected.

Wheelie bins!

Apparently having a bin fall inside the rubbish truck on collection day is a common occurrence.

So they get screened out of the incoming waste stream.

Then separated out into plastic to be recycled.

And wheels that are returned for reuse.

Further reading

The Bulla site uses a method known as “in-vessel composting”

In-vessel composting (IVC) is a group of more advanced composting systems where the process is fully contained within a vessel or building, and closely controlled to accelerate the composting process. IVC is particularly suited to more odourous waste streams such as food waste and the organic-rich fraction separated from mixed residual waste as part of mechanical biological treatment.

IVC can be an energy intensive process, predominantly for the power to provide the forced aeration. Typically, temperatures between 55ºC and 65ºC are achieved by IVC processes because the heat is contained in the vessel (any more than 65ºC is harmful to the bacteria involved). Higher sustained temperatures have the advantage of destroying potentially pathogenic organisms in the waste and can also be used to dry material if desired (bio-drying).

IVC is a more intense form of composting but is often used to partially decompose and pasteurise the waste, followed by a secondary open composting and/or maturation phase. Hence the duration of the in-vessel phase will typically be between two and four weeks. This reduces the capacity requirement of the more expensive IVC phase but also adds to the overall site footprint requirement when the open windrow phase is included.

Odours are contained and captured by ensuring vessels are sealed and air is continuously extracted to maintain the vessel under negative pressure. The extracted process air is usually treated through a biofilter. The waste is also contained from vermin and protected from weather conditions, including rainfall which might produce excessive leachate. Any leachate that does seep out during the composting process is captured and recirculated back into the compost.

The specific process used being:

Process:
• Pre work: to take out visible hazardous and large items;
• Decontamination: 6 – 8 sorters plus 2 loader operators;
• Shredding: to bring material to an even particle size;
• Composting Vessels: 14 composting vessels. 300 cubic meters each. Forced aeration in the vessels;
• The material remains in the vessel at 55C for 72 hours to kill of any seeds /bugs, then in the vessel for a further 7 to 10 days;
• 800 air holes in each floor. Air extracted from the top and feed back into the floor through the 800 holes. Constructed using retractable tarp roof and removable (by loader) front feed doors;
• Windrow for 4 to 6 weeks – prefer windrows outside. No advantage to be inside apart from odour control. Capital cost is high with under cover systems. Leachate management is an issue, and sufficient leachate ponds required;
• Screening for various sizes;
o <20 mm compost; o 20 -60 mm mulch; o > 60 mm oversize; and
• Wind shifter to remove any soft plastics.

Major Markets:
• Broad acre farming; and
• Urban Soil Blends.

The gate fee for Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) is around $85/t.

When material is transported to agricultural areas (up to 350 km) transport becomes the highest cost in the whole process.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post So where does my green waste go to? appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

Taking out the rubbish in Wyndham

Red for rubbish and yellow for recycling?

Nope!

In the Wyndham their rubbish bins have yellow lids, so their recycling bins need to have blue lids.

But in 2018 they caved in, and decided that red lid rubbish bins like the rest of Australia might be a good idea.

But it’s taking a while to roll out.

On July 1, 2018 all new garbage bins will have red lids. This change means we are consistent with Australian standards, while also supporting us to achieve our goal of 90% waste diversion from landfill by 2040.

You might notice that garbage bins in your neighbourhood have yellow lids. These bins are older and in the coming years will be replaced with a red lid bin. We’re aiming to begin changing all remaining yellow lid bins by 2020.

So what are the standards anyway?

Australian Standard AS4123.7-2006 details the standard bin colours.

KS Environmental diagram

But across the Melbourne suburbs, not everyone follows them:

• Overall: 9 councils are fully compliant with bin lid colour
• 12 councils are compliant with recycling and organics bin lid colours
• 1 council has compliant garbage and recycling bin lids
• 9 councils have systems that do not comply

Resulting in a mess of colours.

The Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group broke down the state of Melbourne bin colours in their 2017 ‘Bin Standardisation Guide‘.

Sorry Wyndham City, but the bin colours in Knox are even more cooked – yellow for rubbish, blue for recycling, and red for green waste!

So why does colour matter?

Turns out colour is a powerful tool to make recycling easier.

Standard bin colours and sizes help to promote the correct use of garbage, recycling and organics kerbside bin collection services and support consistent education and messaging around the use of kerbside bins.

The standard promotes the adoption of common colour coding of garbage, recycling and organics kerbside bin collection services across the country, and is intended to make correct recycling ‘automatic’ and ‘unthinking’ behaviour.

There is considerable variation in the bin lid colours and sizes that are used by councils across metropolitan Melbourne. Bringing councils into compliance provides a necessary foundation to develop and run metropolitan Melbourne-wide (or statewide) education campaigns to help residents maximise their recycling efforts.

Moves towards standardisation

In 2012 a trial was carried out to standardise the bin lid colours in City of Yarra.

City of Yarra in 2011 conducted a general waste audit of 60 commercial properties. Results indicated a resource loss (recyclable items in general waste) of 28 per cent and a contamination rate (non-recyclables in recycle bins) of 11 per cent – both higher than household rates.

The Bin Lid Standardisation Pilot Project was developed in response and it aimed to reduce waste and contamination rates, increase recycling, educate traders about waste separation, and provide new red-lidded waste bins to accompany yellow-lidded recycling bins.

The new bins included high visibility signage identifying the property to which it belonged, reducing the possibility of waste being mistakenly placed in them – or users taking the wrong bin back to properties after waste and recycling collection.

With positive results.

After the project’s completion in January 2014 – and taking into account 90 new businesses opening in the pilot period – the result was an almost two per cent fall in the overall waste stream and an almost three and a half per cent rise in recovered recyclables.

In 2017 the Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group detailed options for councils to move move towards the Australian Standard:

• Whole bin standardisation – where existing bins are replaced with preferred standard bin colours and sizes.
• Bin lid replacement – where non-compliant lids are replaced with AS 4123.7 compliant coloured lids.
• Bin lid stickering – where neutral coloured bins and bin lids are given AS 4123.7 compliant coloured bin stickers (not a proven approach).
• Voluntary bin standardisation – where the community is encouraged to volunteer to have a smaller garbage bin for a lower annual fee than a larger bin.
• Gradual bin replacement on a by area or by attrition basis – this option involves scheduling replacements of bin stock according to the age and lifespan of bins. This option can be coupled with other initiatives to encourage households to adopt smaller standard garbage bins.

Detailing the costs – which would be funded by a reduction in waste going to landfill.

Depending on supply arrangements, costs for bin replacement are likely to be in the order of less than $35- $60 per bin replaced. This is equivalent to an amortised cost of in the order of $3.60-$6.10 per bin per year. To cover these costs, the reduction in landfilled waste would need to be in the order 30-45kg per household per year or about a 10-15% reduction in most areas of Melbourne.

The cost of replacing bin lids is significantly lower than whole bin replacement, and realistically may cost in the order of $15-$30 per lid replaced. Assuming this translates to an amortised annual cost of $2-$4 per bin per year, the replacement would need to only achieve a reduction in landfilled waste of 15-25kg per household per year.

And finally some action

In 2019 the Parliament of Victoria completed an Inquiry into Recycling and Waste Management, with submissions noting the confusing state of waste management.

We believe that at the moment there is a somewhat uncoordinated approach which has resulted in fragmented or confused messaging, which has undermined correct disposal habits at the community level. Branding, messaging and bin colouring standards across council regions all differ at the moment, and this has an impact on community understanding of the recycling process.

Leading to difficulty in education the public.

As a region and a regional waste group, we try and run education across multiple councils, but every council has some variation—a different bin lid or something else, or they might be doing a glass trial—so it is really hard to have one size fits all. A different processor might take a different material or not accept glass so they have an extra bin

Noting the benefits of standardisation.

The Committee believes standardisation of bin lid colours is a straightforward way to help reduce confusion about municipal recycling. Standardised bin lid colours across Victoria will facilitate a statewide education campaign to let residents know which bin to deposit their recycling, landfill and organic waste.

But also the cost.

The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office noted in its report Recovering and Reprocessing Resources from Waste that Sustainability Victoria had determined that it could cost $14 million to standardise bin colours across all Victorian councils. The report went on to say that standardisation of bin lid colours: ‘is one measure that may provide a foundation for responsible agencies to develop and run more efficient and effective statewide education campaigns with consistent messages to help residents maximise their recycling efforts.’

Leading to recommendation 18.

That the Victorian Government provide funding to ensure all local councils are compliant with the Standards Australia policy on bin lid colours within 12 months.

Which was adopted by the Victorian Government.

The Victorian Government is investing in $129 million of initiatives to support the reform of kerbside recycling, including the roll out of four colour-coded bins to homes across the state to better sort waste, recyclables and organics. The coordinated roll out of the new bins will start in 2021 and happen gradually – informed by the needs of local communities and existing council contracts. This includes the introduction of a separate glass bin by 2027 and FOGO (Food Organics and Garden Organics) by 2030.

The Victorian Government will work with councils to roll out standardised bin lids: red for residual waste, yellow for commingled recycling, purple for glass recycling and light green for organic recycling. These colours represent the most appropriate set of bin lid colours for Victoria. The purple lid has been selected for the glass bin as this bin will receive glass of mixed colours and Standards Australia does not provide a standard bin lid colour for such a service.

So from Melbourne’s garbage truck fans, farewell to stupid bin colours!

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post A deep dive into wheelie bin lid colours appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

A crash involving two trucks and four cars has closed part of Melbourne's Monash Freeway this morning.

But incredibly, police say no-one was seriously hurt.

Three people have been taken to hospital, two with minor injuries and the third is in a stable condition. pic.twitter.com/cs8h2x7FXJ

— News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) July 24, 2019

Cleanaway started operating their fleet of massive A-Double trucks from May 2017, following the opening of the South East Melbourne Transfer Station in Dandenong.

The facility acts as a consolidation point for rubbish collected from residential and commercial customers in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, where it is compressed into semi-trailers.

Then trucked 60 kilometres across Melbourne.

Eventually ending up at Ravenhall, where it is dumped into the Melbourne Regional Landfill.

On opening the South East Melbourne transfer station accepted a total of 580,000 tonnes of waste per annum, and has EPA approval to increase to a peak of 650,000 tonnes by 2029.

Assuming 286 operational weekdays per year, this means 2028 tonnes of rubbish needs to be moved per day – increasing to 2273 tonnes per day once the transfer station reaches design capacity.

Transported by A-double vehicles with an average load of 43 tonnes per truck, this give as weekday average of 47 trucks per day, increasing to 53 trucks per day at the peak – or six trucks per hour!

No wonder pedestrians avoid the road to Caroline Springs station like the plague.

A short history of these ‘monster’ trucks

Back in 2009 VicRoads commenced a two year trial of bigger ‘High Productivity Freight Vehicles’ serving the Port of Melbourne.

But with plans to introduce them elsewhere:

The use of next generation High Productivity Freight Vehicles (HPFVs) on key dedicated routes has the potential to reduce the number of trucks by almost a third, and reduce emissions and the cost of travel by up to 22 per cent on these routes.

With Victoria’s freight task forecast to approximately double by 2030, next generation HPFVs will be an important way to mitigate increasing congestion, emissions and the cost of our goods.

The trial of next generation HPFVs is an important step in the implementation of a Performance-Based Standards approach to heavy vehicle regulation in Victoria and the broader introduction of new, safe and efficient freight vehicles.

In 2013 the number of roads available to these massive trucks was expanded, following the adoption of the ‘Moving More with Less’ plan, and the types of trucks expanded to include 30-metre long A-doubles in 2017 thanks to the Performance Based Standard (PBS) scheme for trailers.

But is there another way?

Travelling from the Cleanaway transfer station at Dandenong South to the tip at Ravenhall is a 60 kilometre long trip across Melbourne, that takes around an hour via the Monash Freeway, CityLink, West Gate Bridge, Western Ring Road, and Deer Park Bypass.

But the Boral quarry next door to the Ravenhall tip already has a railway siding.

Which branches off the Ballarat line at Caroline Springs station.

With just a 1.3 kilometre drive between it and the tip.

The South East Melbourne Transfer Station is also near a rail siding.

Located on the Cranbourne line at Lyndhurst.

It may be a 7 kilometre long drive across Dandenong South.

But the siding is the site of a future inland port:

Salta’s Lyndhurst terminal is located near Dandenong
• 50,000 m/3 warehouse constructed for Bunnings
• Terminal yet to be constructed
• PRS shuttle trains would use:
• Broad gauge Pakenham & Cranbourne suburban rail lines
• Broad gauge V/Line & ARTC lines between Southern Cross and the Port

So why wasn’t the South East Melbourne Transfer Station built at the Lyndhurst intermodal terminal, with rubbish loaded into containers then transferred by train across Melbourne to Ravenhall, then trucked the last leg of the journey to the tip face?

Sydney proves it works

In 2004 Sydney ran out of space to bury their rubbish, so the Woodlawn open-cut mine near Goulburn was converted into a rubbish tip. Rubbish is loaded at the Clyde transfer station in western Sydney, but instead of a fleet of trucks, it is loaded onto a train.

Photo by Grahamec, via Wikimedia Commons

Each week six 55-carriage trains make the 250-kilometre journey, carrying 1200 tonnes of rubbish each time.

And back to Melbourne

Think moving bulk freight across Melbourne by rail won’t work?

Well, every weekday 1500 tonnes worth of worth of gravel roll through Flinders Street, loaded at a quarry in Kilmore East and bound for Westall.

As does 2000 tonnes of containers headed from Gippsland to the Port of Melbourne.

And 3000 tonnes of coil steel, headed for Hastings.

All three trains have been running since the 1970s – which proves that if there is a will to get freight onto rail, there is a way.

Sources

Melbourne Regional Landfill – Ravenhall.

• A new era in Melbourne’s south east as Cleanaway opens SEMTS (May 5, 2017)
• Traffic and Transport Assessment for the Melbourne Regional Landfill – Ravenhall (14 September 2016)

Bigger trucks.

• Monash Freeway reopens after multi-vehicle smash at peak hour, herald Sun (July 25, 2019)
• Victorian high productivity vehicles, Advantia Transport Consulting
• Victoria’s new HPFV networks for 30-metre A-doubles, Advantia Transport Consulting
• HPFVs – Moving more with less, VicRoads
• Performance Based Standards, joint report by the NHVR and ARTSA (2019 Edition)
• PBS Vehicle Configurations, National Heavy Vehicle Regulator
• Port Rail Shuttle Project Outline

Rubbish trains in Sydney.

• A complete space of waste, Sydney Morning Herald (August 2, 2004)
• Woodlawn Bioreactor, Veolia

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Road trains carting rubbish across Melbourne appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

Here we see a small 120 litre bin for the weekly rubbish pickup, a double sized 240 litre bin for the fortnightly recycling rounds, and something new: a triple sized 360 litre bin for people who drink like fish and would otherwise run out of room to dump their empty stubbies.

Meanwhile in the inner city we see a gaggle of half sized 60 litre wheelie bins sitting on the footpath outside a bar. So what are they full of?

If you tried to push the wheelie bins over then you might get a clue, when you discover these bins are incredibly heavy – the contents are crushed glass.

Instead of having dozens of normal wheel bins filled with empty bottles, today many restaurants and bars have signed up with recycling companies that provide purpose built glass crushing units to install behind the bar. Allowing bar staff to dispose of empty bottles on the spot, the broken glass from the machine gets deposited directly into a mini wheelie bin at the bottom of the unit, reducing the number of times bins needs to be wheeled outside for collection.

Further reading

• BottleCycler seems to be a leader in the field: they use SULO wheelie bins, and ship the glass the collect to Visy for recycling.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Big wheelie bin, little wheelie bin appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

So why have the backs of these televisions been broken open? It appears someone wants the deflection yokes, not to be confused with someone stealing egg yolks.

Boom boom tish!

This is what the back of a cathode ray tube normally looks like (photo from Wikipedia).

By themselves the deflection yokes are rather boring: they are just a coil of wire that produces a magnetic field, and a functional equivalent can be made in the workshop in an hour or two.

However, there is a far more interesting component at this end of a CTR: the electron gun. A colour television has three of these guns – red, green and blue – and each of them produces a beam of electrons which is used to draw the actual image on the screen.

So what could someone do with a few dozen scrounged electron guns? I would like to find out.

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Beware the television mutilator appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.

In my local suburb the annual hard rubbish collection is approaching, so many of my neighbours have emptied out their spare rooms and put their old televisions out on the nature strip for collection. My 1.2 kilometre long walk to the railway station passes around 150 households: so how many televisions can I find?

Televisions 1 and 2: a pair of 10 year old mid-sized CRTs.

Television 3: a cheap Teac telly.

Not quite a TV: someone has dumped their old CRT computer monitor for a new LCD panel.

Televisions 4 and 5: another pair of 10 year old mid-sized CRTs.

Television 6: someone’s tiny bedroom TV.

Television 7: another 10 year old mid-sized CRT.

Television 8: something a bit different, a 30 year old small Sanyo portable with a VHF-only push-button tuner.

Televisions 9 and 10: two more 10 year old mid-sized CRTs.

Televisions 11 and 12: and two more mid-sized televisions.

Televisions 13 and 14: two different TVs, a 1980s midsized unit, and an oldschool wooden floorstanding cabinet set.

Television 15: another nice unit, this time an AWA portable unit with rabbit ears and a VHF-only turret tuner – do you remember the mysterious channel 5A?

Television 16: a pretty big Sony Triniton.

Televisions 17 and 18: more 10 year old mid-sized tellys.

Televisions 19 and 20: still more of the same.

Television 21: another small bedroom television.

Television 22: another mid-sized television, perhaps from the kitchen?

Not quite a TV: but an old box for a 68 centimetres CRT telly.

Television 23: yet another mid-sized television.

Television 24: a cheap-arse Conia.

And just outside the railway station… a box for a digital PVR that someone bought to use with an existing television.

In less than 15 minutes I found 24 old televisions by walking passing around 150 households – one in six is throwing out an old TV. Over 100,000 tonnes of old televisions and computers (16.8 million units) were disposed of across Australia in 2007-08, but 84 per cent (by weight) went straight to the trip, despite containing hazardous materials such as lead, cadmium and mercury.

I’m sure Harvey Norman and the credit card companies are loving all of the new televisions being sold in Australia, but I hate to think of the hazardous materials ending up in landfills.

Further reading

• Recycling Near You: find a recycling centre to take your old junk
• National Television and Computer Product Stewardship Scheme: an upcoming Federal Government scheme to to address the issue

Post retrieved by 35.215.163.46 using

The post Funeral for a cathode ray tube appeared first on Waking up in Geelong.