Achievements - Wingfield Waste & Recycling Centre

Adelaide's Wingfield Waste & Recycling Centre is a world-leading initiative that is turning a mountain of rubbish into a sustainable recycling sector that delivers jobs, profits and environmental dividends.

Within four years of closing as a landfill operation, the 94-hectare Wingfield site has become a world-class recycling and resource recovery precinct, supporting an innovative cluster of recycling businesses.

With a collective 2008 turnover of nearly $40 million and employing more than 80 people, businesses at the Wingfield Waste & Recycling Centre managed to recycle approximately 90% of the nearly one million tonnes of waste materials delivered to the precinct in 2007.

By contrast, when the Wingfield dump was closed as a landfill operation on December 31, 2004, it received a record 1,075,000 tonnes of waste material during its final year, with negligible recycling.

With a 2008 employee head count of 84 - more than four times its 2004 job level - Wingfield now
generates $38 million worth of economic activity, nearly twice the total of 2004 dump fee earnings.
Recycling operations at the Wingfield Waste & Recycling Centre include:

Orora, which recycles 50,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard waste naturally
Jeffries, which recycles 100,000 tonnes of green waste annually into mulch and compost
Adelaide Resource Recovery (ARR) which transforms construction and demolition waste into "Recycled Rubble” products used for building and road foundations; and also operates a "cleanfill” facility at Wingfield which accepts and distributes clean soils, clays and mixed materials for use in land reclamation, landscaping and roadwork projects; and
TPI (TransPacific Industries), which accepts residual waste and also operates the award-winning landfill facility at Inkerman, 80km north of Adelaide.

Waste products that were formerly dumped as landfill are now used to create garden compost, recycled paper and cardboard and rubble for road making and building foundations. Recovered plastics and metals are even exported for processing and re-use overseas. As well as providing a convenient one-stop waste delivery location for individuals, businesses and councils, the Wingfield Waste & Recycling Centre enables companies to collaborate to ensure that "contaminated” materials are delivered to the business best equipped to manage that waste stream.

The Wingfield Waste & Recycling Centre has attracted international attention. Visitors are amazed at how advanced we are in recycling. Wingfield is definitely seen as a trendsetter in international waste management. We take it for granted, but this centre has set the standard in Australia as an integrated recycling operation.