A proposed landfill at Wanless Recycling Park, part of a controversial $50-million development proposal at Ebenezer, has been nixed.
Wanless Waste Management proposed to establish a landfill and waste transfer and recycling facility that would process up to a million tonnes of waste, with 550,000 tonnes of it ending up as landfill. Wanless said that the project will represent 150% of Ipswich’s per capita recycling quota and will result in a 4.1% recycling rate for the whole of Queensland.
Ipswich City Council supported the proposed waste transfer and recycling facility aspect of the Wanless Recycling Park proposal but decided to reject its landfill component. Council officers recommended the part-refusal of the landfill and partial rehabilitation of a mining void, along with part-approval of the reconfiguration of a lot and recycling centre components.
About 60 submissions have been lodged on the proposed project. Whilst many residents also approve of a recycling facility, most of them are not keen on having a new landfill site in the area citing environmental concerns.
“Our community expects the highest standards of scrutiny of any new landfill proposal in Ipswich, and rightly so,” Mayor Harding said. She said that the proposed project failed to meet the expectations and targets of the Council and the State Government.
“It is our residents who have worn the negative impacts of the waste industry time and time again,” she added.
“Worthy of support”
“Whilst disappointed with the decision of Ipswich City Council, we believe the Wanless Recycling Park is worthy of support, particularly as State government approval was received after a two-year exhaustive process,” Wanless Waste Management CEO Dean Wanless said.
“Council has proposed we export waste off-site, however this will result in generating more cars, trucks and general traffic on already congested roads,” he added. Wanless also mentioned that the Wanless Recycling Park “will provide a permanent protected area to ensure koalas can live safely and without disturbance,” apart from the 150 full-time union-backed employment opportunities that will be gained once the project is at full production.