About 300,000 Queensland households have an organic waste bin, mostly used for garden waste. By 2030 the State Government wants more than 1.6 million households collecting both food and garden waste to assist in meeting national and state waste reduction targets.
The state’s Organics Action Plan 2022-32 sets out a roadmap to transition to a circular economy and build economic and market opportunity for the organics recycling industry.
With a proven track record of transforming organic resources into quality-assured, life-giving soil products, SOILCO is an early mover in the South-East Queensland market, investing in strategic locations that will deliver key infrastructure and technology to bring its source-separated organics processing services to councils, commercial waste generators and local communities.
In 2022-23 the company secured three greenfield sites – Badgerys Creek in Western Sydney, Pinkenba in Brisbane, and Bromelton, in the Scenic Rim – that are now well on their way to being developed into large-scale organics recovery facilities.
Roslyn Florie-George, Executive General Manager – Strategic Growth & Infrastructure, says each site has been carefully chosen to meet the infrastructure needs of the surrounding region.
The combined capacity of these new facilities will exceed 900,000 tonnes per annum and will bolster SOILCO’s existing networks that span New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT. Importantly, they will deliver proven results in helping communities increase the diversion of Food Organics Garden Organics (FOGO) from landfill.
“We successfully transitioned from public drop-off/self haul feedstocks to kerbside garden organics (GO) 25 years ago, and more recently, we’ve assisted our council partners to navigate the transition from GO to FOGO,” Roslyn says. “We’ve needed to overcome challenges and collaborate closely with our council partners. “We feel that all of our learnings as a business will be beneficial to Queensland, and we’ve invested significant capital in the region.”
Initial property infrastructure works, which include a new intersection and road extension, have been approved for the 161-hectare Bromelton Compost Manufacturing Facility (CMF).
Final development applications for the CMF were submitted in October 2024. Designs include a 400,000-tonne capacity facility comprising 250,000 tonnes of organics processing and 150,000 tonnes of additional value-add products, such as sand and soil, to blend with composted products.
SOILCO’s Bromelton CMF will use aerated static pile technology, which, Roslyn says, has proven to work effectively for feedstocks containing food in more regional locations.
“It’s a technology we are familiar with, and we have successfully used since 2018 at our Wogamia facility, near Nowra in New South Wales,” she says
“It’s the sweet spot between open windrow composting and in vessel systems. It provides the required environmental and process controls, without the need for capital investment in enclosed tunnels.”
The facility will fill a gap in South-East Queensland and northern New South Wales which, Roslyn says, are currently lacking organics facilities. SOILCO’s Tweed Heads Organics Processing Facility (located at Stotts Creek Resource Recovery Centre) is nearing its licenced capacity. SOILCO is regularly approached by councils on both sides of the border seeking a solution for organic waste in the region.
She says the biggest challenge in Queensland is that landfill levies do not yet provide an economic incentive for local government to transition to FOGO. At the same time, strict legislative frameworks are being introduced, resulting in less appetite for organics processors to invest in expensive enclosed technologies alongside pre and post sort decontamination processing equipment .
However, if the industry is to meet legislative requirements and resource recovery targets, additional capital expenditure is needed.
“Self haul GO is a relatively clean waste stream that can continue to be managed by existing infrastructure, however, we anticipate that councils will see a change in feedstock quality when kerbside GO services are introduced more broadly. With the move to FOGO, there will likely be another shift in the feedstock characteristics, which will require further investment in the industry.
“SOILCO is a legitimate player. We have half a century of experience, and we are developing facilities locally to get the most out of this valuable resource.
While the kerbside organics recycling landscape continues to evolve, SOILCO is broadening its service offering and is currently finalising the Material Change in Use application for its Pinkenba facility, which will be approved to receive and aggregate a wide range of waste streams, in addition to organics.
It plays to a broader objective for the company to become a national resource recovery platform.
“SOILCO has an excellent reputation for recycling domestic and commercial organic feedstocks in southern NSW, and more recently the Northern Rivers and Canberra.” Roslyn says.
“In the past three years we’ve broadened our footprint and crossed state borders. We’re working hard to establish a large-scale strategic network and are on the cusp of doing so much. 2025 will be our biggest year yet.”
See this article featured in the December issue of Waste Management Review
