1. Sharing innovation A partnership approach to: collective procurement
education and
residual waste management
Communities and local government have a long, strong and proud history of driving environmental change.
As you all know, local government led the pack with kerbside recycling, and it was your communities desire to start seeing this waste as a resource that led to recycling system we have today.
Today I’d like to share with you how councils partnered with MWRRG, and developed and delivered a vision of a modern organics processing network for Melbourne.
And I’d also like to share MWRRG’s vision for how we see local government innovation make yet another step change in how Melbourne manages its waste.
MAV Environment conference

2. Where we’ve come from… Innovation is often born from necessity……
Ten years ago, councils relied on open-windrow recycling facilities to process green waste.
The industry lacked investment certainty. There was low market demand and quality issues with end product.
5 compost processing facilities closed due to planning compliance or odour issues
The system was broken.
Melbourne no longer had all the green waste facilities it needed to process the green waste that was being collected by councils.
MWRRG and councils had to act quickly to keep around 200,000 tonnes of green waste out of landfill.
As an interim measure MWMG established 13 organics overflow contracts to address this need.
Looking back, we were playing a game of chess.
While we had found a short-term solution, it was clear that a long term, sustainable answer was needed.
Innovation is often born from necessity……

3. Identifying a long term solution for organics- collective procurement.
At the same time MWRRG was working to keep green waste out of landfill, we began preparing our first comprehensive waste plan for Melbourne – the Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Strategic Plan.
While developing the plan we looked at ways to overcome the challenges with the organics industry.
We needed to secure the certainty of feedstock and investment required to build the advanced organics facilities of the future.
It became clear that aggregating green waste was the only way to go to market to get the result we needed.
So the Strategic Plan proposed establishing clusters of councils that could go to market together.
This option would not only provide the volumes that would be required to attract investment in higher technology …….
But could also provide the long term security of service at affordable cost to councils

4. Where we are now
MWMG worked with councils in the north and west of Melbourne to develop our first collective contract for processing of organics.
11 councils joined a joint procurement process to secure processing for green and food organics, sea weed and street sweepings.
Veolia as the successful tenderer offered to deliver Victoria’s largest advanced in vessel composting facility:
In 2013 Veolia opened its high technology in-door facility capable of processing 85,000 tonnes per annum.
The contract also allows for another 35,000 tonne per annum in-door facility in Werribee once Bulla reaches capacity.
Councils’ aggregated green waste & MWRRG procurement leveraged $30 million capital investment facility

5. Completing the organics network
So we are now well on the way to achieving our goal of an integrated organics network for Melbourne.
By 2026 our plans are to develop an organics network that is capable of processing more than 600,000 tonnes per year.
We have capacity for 120,000 tonnes in the north west of Melbourne.
Our South Eastern Organics contract is delivering 200,000 tonnes of capacity.
And the east we will provide 80,000 tonnes worth of capacity.
We have identified the need build in a further 200,000 tonnes of capacity to manage the increased volumes of both household and commercial organic waste that will need to be recovered to help Melbourne achieve a targets of reduction in waste to landfill.
We are confident we can achieve our targets through our unique collective procurement model.

6. Innovation in education
A key part of achieving the successful roll-out of our organics network is ensuring the community is on board.
Rather than seeing education as an activity that sits to the side – we have included education as an important supporting element of our collective procurement strategy.
In 2013 along with the opening of the Bulla facility we launched the Back to Earth Initiative.
This is the first time in metropolitan Melbourne there’s been a stand- alone organics education campaign that is aimed at building awareness in the community about what happens once the waste leaves the kerbside.
The campaign is centred on the message that material put in the bin is turned into compost for the benefit of farms and community use.
Initial research and subsequent evaluation has found building this awareness is key to encouraging ongoing improvements in behaviour at the kerbside.
We are working closely with partners- local government and the processors to deliver the program.

7. The Back to Earth success story
‘We’re putting your green waste to good use ... helping farms and gardens bloom’
Engagement with over 75,000 people in 23 councils since 2013.
Combining centralised resources with tailored local approaches.
Successfully combines awareness raising through tools including social media with localised in-depth engagement via schools and community
We need to recognise that community interactions don’t stop at municipal boundaries
Back to Earth provides a new model for community education.
Working with multi-council clusters we have been able to develop centralised resources like the Back to Earth website whilst providing the flexibility for councils to tailor the program for local delivery.
Councils in the Goulburn Valley have successfully used Back to Earth to launch new combined food and green organics services.
The success of the Goulburn Valley’s approach lead to recognition as a National Banksia Award Finalist and Premiers Sustainability Award winner.
By councils delivering consistent education we’ve been able to successfully use tools like social media to engage with over 75,000 people since the Back to Earth initiative was launched.
Our evaluation has shown that the program has been successful in raising awareness of the benefits of organic recycling amongst those who have engaged with the program.
We are learning from each others experience’s with the program so we can continue to roll it out across metro Melbourne and across the state.

8. Innovation in residual waste processing… the next frontier
Through our innovation in collective procurement we have set up a new way of working together to deliver investment into the new ways to manage organics –
both the technology and the way we work with the community to deliver the right inputs to support the technology
So what’s next on the agenda?
How do we continue to innovate and advance the way manage our waste

9. Melbourne’s challenge….
Melbourne’s Population is growing and this means growing volumes of waste.
Approximately 10.4 million tonnes of waste is managed in the metro area today
And that’s going to increase to around 16.5 million tonnes in 2042.

10. Strategic Objectives - Draft Metropolitan Implementation Plan
If we are going to meet community expectations to keep waste out of landfill we need to have a clear plan of action.
The Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Implementation Plan sets out how we will meet Melbourne’s waste needs over the next 10 years.
The plan acknowledges the challenges associated with Melbourne’s growth.
It outlines a roadmap for delivering community, environmental and economic benefits
Reducing waste sent to landfill and encouraging greater recovery of resources.

11. Resource recovery is a priority
To achieve the goals outlined in the Metropolitan Implementation plan we need to increase resource recovery by 63% above our current baseline.
Household and council waste makes up 24% of all waste, but 46% of landfilled waste
While 74% of all waste is recycled across Melbourne, only 48% of all municipal waste is, and rates vary across councils from 20% to 57%
But we know councils will need to look at alternative technologies in order to recover up to and above our targets for landfill diversion.
We also know that to deliver the technology we need - Industry will need secure, long term access to waste volumes to provide confidence required to invest.
MWRRG currently holds landfill contracts with 26 councils out of 31 councils representing 80% of all municipal waste going to landfill.
Future development of new collective contracts are our opportunity to achieve a further step change in how Melbourne manages its waste

12. Melbourne is ready for change
Market Assessment – over 60 submissions, significant interest in resource recovery
Local Government – a strong commitment to maximising recycling
Community – strong support to increase recycling, to move away from landfills, and to use advanced technologies
Melbourne is ready for change.
Both industry and the community.
Our Market Assessment to help inform the Metropolitan Implementation Plan received over 60 submissions with significant interest in resource recovery
The community is also supporting an increase in recycling and move away from landfills towards the use of advanced technologies.
But to go even further we will need to work with local government to make a step change.
Councils will need to make some big decisions in the coming years to ensure we can achieve our resource recovery goals and build an integrated network of more advanced technology.
We will need to work together taking an innovative partnership approach and we look forward to working with you.

13. Serving local and regional needs
MWRRG’s approach is to find innovative procurement solutions that both:
work for the big picture – driving a metro wide boost in resource recovery infrastructure to reduce our reliance on landfills,
While also meeting the local needs of solutions
MWRRG first step in this new exciting journey is to sit down with local government to identify and understand the unique, local needs that any new residual procurement will need to meet.
We’ve all done the hard yards in setting our collective vision for Melbourne – we now need to fill out the picture with the local aspirations our your community.
Like everything else we do at MWRRG is the way to achieve this.

14. Collaboration drives creativity
And finally, I’d like to conclude by again highlighting the importance of collaboration.
At MWRRG, we know that we do not have all the knowledge and insights needed to make this essential step change needed for our waste system.
We need to collaborate with out local government partners, other state government agencies, industry, community, and NGOs to deliver solutions.
We all know this is essential for success. Our collaboration with you is successfully delivering the $5.5 million Metro Fund, the litter hotspots program, and Back to Earth.
I’ m looking forward to this next stage in our partnership. Our collaboration has defined our vision for Melbourne where organics are processed into the useful products we know they are, where landfills really are the last resort. Where new, advanced resource recovery technologies start to take their place in Melbourne.
It’s exciting, its innovative, it’s real, and it is, and always has been made possible by our collaboration with councils.

15. Thank you