Winner Division C, Overall Winner

Shoalhaven City Council: Glass recycling facility - Shoalhaven
Realising that reject glass fines from co-mingled MRFs was becoming an increasing problem, Shoalhaven Council saw an opportunity to focus on this “legacy” glass and design a system to recover this material and return it to a circular economy.  In January 2020, the council began laying the slab for an in-house designed glass processing plant at its recycling and waste facility in West Nowra. Commissioned in May 2021, the washed glass sand has attracted interest from multiple customers, with more than 1,800 tonnes returned to the circular economy in the first nine weeks of operation.

Read more in the case study

Highly Commended Division C

Sutherland Shire Council: Sustainable road pavement program
This Sutherland Shire Council program supports the evaluation, trialling and implementation of sustainable innovations and initiatives, while prioritising solutions that strongly support the waste hierarchy principles and reduce the whole-of-life cost of the road asset.

In the past year, the program has successfully renewed 180,000 square metres of asphalt road pavement containing recycled crushed glass, which equates to the recycling of 4.5 million glass bottles. The program has also completed Sydney’s first foamed asphalt pavement trial. A total of 20,000m2 of road surface was completed with this new product, which recycles and retains all existing pavement. It is highly sustainable and substantially lower in cost when compared to conventional asphalt pavements.

BACK TO MAIN PAGE