Power from your trash
The rest of the world may be moving on but landfill remains the treatment of choice in Australia for non-recyclable rubbish.
That is something businessman and former Stirling mayor Tony Vallelonga wants to change.
"We've got to have a better solution than digging holes and burying our rubbish," he said.
Mr Vallelonga is a partner with Martin Biopower, a joint venture with the German thermal waste-to-energy plant builder Martin.
For Martin, Australia is the last frontier. The company has a presence on every inhabited continent except Australia, having built to date 410 facilities in 33 countries.
The joint venture was formed last year with the goal of correcting that situation. Director Edmund Fleck said when contact was made two years ago, he had at first been sceptical of overcoming Australia's preference for the cheaper landfill option.
Today, Mr Fleck is more optimistic, particularly in the West, where Martin Biopower is based.
"At the moment, we see really good business opportunities here in WA and the Perth area," he said.
Both local government in the form of the regional councils that handle waste and private com- panies could be clients.
The partners believe there is a political will in Australia to pursue more environmentally friendly options for rubbish.
"What you put in landfill in Australia is lost energy," Perth-based partner Gerhard Janssen said.
Martin's technology involves the grate combustion of municipal solid waste, producing steam for electricity production and process industries.
Only between 3 per cent and 4 per cent of the waste ends up in landfill.
"With this investment you're able not only to save the energy but reuse all the precious materials which everybody throws away," director Ulrich Martin, a fourth-generation member of the family company, said.
The directors said plants built in Australia would adhere to the strict emissions limits which apply in Europe, where Martin has more than 200 facilities operating, sometimes in the middle of cities like Zurich and Monaco.
In Europe, a plant which treats 250,000 tonnes a year requires an investment of about $230 million. The life of such a facility is about 30 to 40 years.
Mr Fleck said local content would be used as much as possible during construction of a project.
"We might have to bring some key components from abroad," he said. "But most of it we'll source from either here in Australia or nearby."
'We've got to have a better solution than digging holes and burying our rubbish.' " Martin Biopower partner *Tony Vallelonga *
