SOILCO has completed the purchase of two strategically located greenfield sites, expanding its service offerings in South-East Queensland. The successful land acquisitions include a 6.7ha site in Pinkenba (Brisbane) and a 160ha property in Bromelton (Scenic Rim). SOILCO intends to develop both sites into large-scale organics processing and clean energy infrastructure assets. These strategic sites will extend the company’s operational footprint and bring its source separated organics processing services to Queensland councils, commercial waste generators and local communities.
The new sites, coupled with SOILCO’s existing Organics Processing Facility (OPF) in Tweed, will be critical in assisting the Northern Rivers and South-East Queensland regions achieve ambitious recycling targets and counter the financial impact of rising landfill levies.
SOILCO’s 25,000 tpa Tweed OPF commenced operations in August 2021. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, closed borders and recent extreme flood events, the Tweed OPF was delivered on time, on budget and continues to manufacture high quality soil health products from source separated Food and Garden Organics (FOGO) collected by the Tweed and Ballina communities.
The Tweed OPF was the first functional piece of SOILCO’s new South-East Queensland and Northern Rivers network. Although the Tweed OPF works well as an independent facility, SOILCO’s network model will provide additional service options and a broader range of end-products to the local urban amenity and agricultural markets.
SOILCO specialises in the design, construction and operation of state-of-the-art organics processing facilities and is drawing on more than 35 years of experience in the industry to develop the Pinkenba and Bromelton sites.
“We’re using all the lessons learnt from our existing operations, as well as NSW’s staged transition to FOGO kerbside services, to design best-practice organics processing solutions for Queensland. Our designs are always fit-for-purpose and are adapted to the site, feedstock and local regulations.” Charlie Emery, Managing Director of SOILCO.
SOILCO sees value in having multiple facilities working in close proximity to complement operations and ensure a fit-for-purpose range of high-quality soil health products can be manufactured. Both the proposed Pinkenba and Bromelton infrastructure assets will be large scale in nature, and the processing technologies will reflect their unique locations and proposed feedstocks.
SOILCO acknowledges there will be challenges ahead as Queensland councils transition to new collection, aggregation and processing models for domestic source separated organics. It is expected to take time to design, approve and construct the new service offerings of the Pinkenba and Bromelton facilities and prepare local communities for the successful changes required to increase diversion of FOGO from landfill. The infrastructure for each site will be phased, leveraging existing resource recovery approvals at Pinkenba and providing cost effective and proven processing solutions for low-risk organics streams at Bromelton. SOILCO is targeting an operational start date of 2024 for Phase 1 and has ambitious development plans for each site over the mid to long-term planning horizon.
“In the right locations, we plan to co-locate Anaerobic Digestion (AD) and In Vessel Composting (IVC) technologies to provide a net-zero processing solution for our council and commercial partners. We’re considering all technology options for our new Queensland sites and look forward to proving that we have the know-how and drive to help Queensland efficiently and sustainably divert their organics from landfill.”
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