Energy-from-waste technologies offer economic and environmentally attractive alternatives to landfill in Australia, Tribe executive tells Masdar Talks

An ongoing sustainability drive in Australia has been the catalyst for the development of energy-from-waste (EfW) as a solution to diverting waste from landfill, senior executives from Masdar and Tribe Infrastructure Group said during the latest edition of the Instagram Live Masdar Talks series. 

“Waste reduction, improvements in recycling and better solutions for non-recyclable residual waste have all been things that are now very much at the forefront of people’s minds,” said Edward Nicholas, Executive Director, Tribe Infrastructure Group. “Government support has been demonstrated through policies including landfill levies that incentivize competitive alternatives to landfill. Energy-from-waste is a means of diverting waste away from landfill and if that can be done competitively with the costs of landfilling of waste then you have the double benefit of an environmentally superior solution that’s also economically attractive to users.” 

Last year, Masdar and Tribe announced they were establishing a joint venture (JV) to develop utility-scale EfW projects in Australia, as well as support their delivery and management. 

Przemek Lupa, Head of Development & Investment for the Asia Pacific region in Masdar’s Clean Energy division, said “The support of the UAE leadership was a critical part of the success of developing the sector in the UAE. It is great for Masdar and Tribe to be able to partner to advance waste-to-energy in Australia too, which is on a similar trajectory to the United Arab Emirates in terms of pace of adoption.”  

The JV’s first project is East Rockingham Waste to Energy, a 29-megawatt project currently under construction in the Rockingham Industry Zone, 40km south of Perth in Western Australia. Once completed, the facility will process 300,000 tonnes of non-recyclable municipal, commercial and industrial waste and up to 30,000 tonnes of biosolids per annum. 

“Energy-from-waste is only one of the suite of measures that can be brought to bear to help to improve the overall footprint of waste in our society but is absolutely an essential tool for any society that is looking to dramatically reduce its waste generation, waste treatment and waste handling,” said Nicholas. 

In October 2020, Opal Australian Paper and SUEZ Australia and New Zealand announced that Masdar and Tribe had become additional equity partners for the development of the Maryvale EfW facility in Victoria. The project will deliver more than 500 jobs in Victoria and the Gippsland region of Australia during the three-year construction phase, as well as additional employment during the facility’s operation.