FEATURED TOPIC – AUSTRALIAN MADE
A feat of engineering
The finished plant includes the latest technology and is designed to process 50,000 tonnes of co-mingled household recycling annually.
WASTECH ENGINEERING HAS OVERCOME EVERY OBSTACLE COVID-19 HAS THROWN ITS WAY TO DELIVER A MATERIALS RECOVERY FACILITY AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE RECYCLING INDUSTRY.
W
hen you work with large-scale, complicated equipment you plan on a certain level of difficulty. However, no amount of planning could have predicted the challenges that confronted Wastech Engineering during its biggest project to date. The Victorian-based company engineered and manufactured a stateof-the-art sorting plant for a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in South Australia in the midst of a global pandemic that forced Australia to shut its borders to the world and interstate.
42 / WMR / April 2022
Scott Foulds, Wastech General Manager – Projects, says COVID-19 “added complexity” to the project including supply chain shortages, transport issues, border closures and changing quarantine rules. Despite the obstacles, the $23.2 million recycling facility in Kilburn was delivered on time without compromising on quality and standards. The plant started operating in testing mode in November 2021 and went to full operation in January 2022. Wastech worked in partnership with Pascale Constructions, which built
the facility on a greenfield site for the Central Adelaide Waste and Recycling Authority (CAWRA), a joint initiative of the cities of Charles Sturt and Port Adelaide Enfield. The project received $4.36 million funding from the Federal and State governments’ Recycling Modernisation Fund. Scott says the project involved 7000 hours of design and engineering work. More than 11,000 hours of manufacturing was carried out at Wastech’s Hallam factory before components were freighted to South Australia for a three-month installation.
