The answer to Derwent Valley’s waste woes already exists in the form of Southern Waste Solutions and the Copping Waste Joint Authority.
SWS is council-owned and operates the state’s largest integrated network of waste management facilities, including the Lutana Waste Transfer Station and the Copping Waste Precinct.
City of Clarence CEO Ian Nelson said what Derwent Valley Council has proposed is an expensive, could-be solution to a non-existent problem.
“The simple solution here is for Derwent Valley Council to engage with SWS and the Joint Authority,” Mr Nelson said.
“SWS services 50 per cent of Tasmania’s population, across 11 local government areas, providing strategic support and waste management services.
“The Copping facility is perfectly set up to handle the waste challenges of any municipality as landfill facilities located around southern Tasmania reach end of life in the coming years.
City of Clarence Mayor Brendan Blomeley said that while handling of waste is a complex issue with multiple industry and local government stakeholders, SWS has established a system that has delivered great outcomes for the past 20 or more years.
“Many waste solutions and proposals have been floated over the years but reinventing the wheel and reviving decades old ideas is not the way forward,” said Mayor Blomeley.
“The notion of a waste to energy plant, to incinerate waste, was investigated and dismissed nearly 20 years ago when Brighton Council first proposed that expensive option.
“Added to that, the idea that a further joint authority is required is wholly without merit. TasWaste South has been established by southern region councils to address strategic waste management issues, while the Copping Joint Authority oversees the operation of municipal waste disposal via Southern Waste Solutions.
“We have an innovative, best practice organisation in SWS who perfectly serve half of the state, are highly strategic and future-focused, investing in resource recovery initiatives and partnerships to help divert waste from landfill, and a contemporary waste management site at Copping with at least 100 years of waste management future ahead.”
City of Clarence is a major shareholder in Southern Waste Solutions.