Waste and Reject Management

Approach

Kestrel’s waste management strategy utilises the waste management hierarchy to guide and rank waste management decisions. The hierarchy gives top priority to waste prevention, followed by re-use, recycling, recovery and finally disposal. Kestrel’s strategy promotes waste avoidance, waste reduction and resource recovery before considering disposal to landfill.

Kestrel work with appropriately licenced waste contractors to ensure that all waste streams, including regulated waste, are handled, stored, transported, tracked, and disposed of in accordance with legal requirements, including our site Environmental Authority. Throughout Kestrel’s operating areas, recycling bins are provided to promote the recycling effort among the workforce making individuals accountable for Kestrel’s overall recycling effort.

Waste from coal is managed as a separate category of waste. Coal mined from underground operations is conveyed to the Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) where is it washed to remove larger impurities (rejects) and finer material (fines). The rejects and fines have historically been mixed together and disposed of at the site’s Co-disposal Facility (CDF). Kestrel aims to design, construct, operate and decommission facilities using risk-based management practices to ensure no unacceptable impacts to environment.

2022 Outcomes

The total volume of waste generated in 2022 was 2,569 tonnes, down from 4,517 tonnes in 2021 and 6,763 tonnes in 2020. This reduction was largely a result of a reduction of liquid wastes.

Kestrel’s scrap steel clean up in 2021 continued into 2022 and will be an ongoing focus into the future. In 2022, Kestrel sent almost 1,500 tonnes of scrap metal to recyclers, comprising mostly of heavy gauge scrap. With the success of the scrap steel clean up in 2021, a similar campaign to remove redundant or abandoned items from all site laydown areas was undertaken. The campaign saw $375,000 of items and materials sold to businesses, contractors and employees for removal from site and recycled or re-purposed. Some of these items included old machinery, used centrifuge baskets, scrap pipes, used conveyor belt and surplus fencing materials. In addition, 68 tonnes of scrap belt was sent for recycling and 792 intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) sent collected for repurposing or recycling. Waste reviews are conducted quarterly with Kestrel and contractors reviewing contract conditions and performance to identify further waste reduction initiatives.

Kestrel’s commitment to recycling is further demonstrated through the implementation of the recycling of plastic bottles and cans in conjunction with Containers for Change. Cut open IBCs have been placed across site for the collection of recyclable containers. These are then transported to the Containers for Change depot in Emerald. All money generated through this recycling initiative is donated to local junior sporting clubs.

The Year Ahead

In 2023, Kestrel propose to:

„ Implement a battery recycling initiative.

„ By partnering with a safety gumboot supplier we will investigate a program of recycling the several tonnes of gumboots for PPE used by Kestrel annually.

„ Further assess waste reporting processes.