General waste that will be produced at Sydney’s newest shopping centre, Top Ryde City, is scheduled to be recovered and reused to create renewable electricity, thanks to an innovative and sustainable waste management process implemented by Veolia Environmental Services.
In a bid to reduce the amount of general waste and recyclable materials going to traditional landfills, Veolia Environmental Services is looking to recover up to 60-65% of all general waste and recyclable materials, once the centre launches on November 5.
Peter Grima, Veolia Environmental Services Business Manager, says the company’s Woodlawn Eco-Precinct enables general waste to be recovered and reused.
“General waste from the Ryde site will be transported to our Woodlawn Bioreactor, where the gas produced from the waste breaking down, will be used to create renewable energy,” said Mr Grima.
Top Ryde City’s management estimates that it will produce approximately 1,440 tonnes of general waste a year. By utilising bioreactor technology, Veolia will able to produce approximately 411,840kWh of electricity per annum from this waste.
With households estimated at using 8000kWh of electricity per year [i], a year’s general waste from Top Ryde City is estimated to produce enough power for 50 households for a year.
Michelle Thomas, Defined Developments Project Marketing Manager, says the work that Veolia Environmental Services provides is ground-breaking.
“It is wonderful to know that a shopping centre of this size can make a genuine difference to its eco footprint,” said Mrs Thomas.
Veolia estimates that each tonne of Commercial and Industrial (C&I) waste sent to its Woodlawn Bioreactor instead of a traditional landfill, will help save 1.2 tonnes of greenhouse gas (tCO2-e) [ii].
The company also estimates that 1,440 tonnes of general waste produced at Top Ryde City a year, will equate to a saving of 1,728 tonnes of greenhouse gases (tCO2-e) per year. This is equivalent to taking 430 cars off the road for a year [iii] or planting over 6,000 trees [iv].
Veolia Environmental Services is one of Australia’s leading waste management and resource recovery companies, providing services to over 60,000 customers nationally. In 2008, Veolia recycled over 391,000 tonnes of waste and treated over 188,000 tonnes of hazardous waste within Australia.
Top Ryde City is a vibrant complex located in the heart of the Central North of Sydney and will open in three stages. Stage one will launch on November 5 with 120 retailers, including Woolworths, Big W, Dan Murphy’s, Dick Smith, JB Hi-Fi, 17 food court outlets and over 90 speciality stores.
Stage Two will launch in early 2010 and the complete shopping centre, will be unveiled in mid 2010.
Upon completion of Top Ryde City, the shopping centre will become a one stop shopping, leisure and entertainment destination with Myer, a movie theatre, bowling alley, La Strada and La Piazza.
For more information about Top Ryde City or retailers, visit http://www.toprydecity.com.au/
For media enquiries, please contact Renee Fry 02 8571 0109
[i]http://www.actewagl.com.au/education/QuirkyFacts/default.aspx?section=Energy; and
http://evolve.ergon.com.au/CleanEnergy.aspx
[ii]From Veolia’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Tool – calculations have been verified by Hyder Consulting
[iii] Based on calculations that average Australia car produces 4tCO2e per year in greenhouse gas emissions. Department of Climate Change, personal communication
[iv] Based on calculations that over its life, a tree captures 0.268 tonnes of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. http://www.greenfleet.com.au/Global/Researchers/Technical_information/index.aspx