Voice of Byron regular, Tony Martin, shared this ABC News article on burning our rubbish to generate electricity, using Melbourne as an example.
The article says, “There are some who believe Australia should be burning its residential and industrial waste for electricity rather than sending it to landfill.
Others, however, maintain that we should be concentrating on reducing the amount of refuse we create rather than burning it.
Waste-to-energy technology is used across the world, with countries including Japan, China and Finland burning rubbish to generate electricity.
The World Bioenergy Association’s Andrew Lang said that, by contrast, Melbourne’s waste was piling up in a “mountain” at Ravenhall in the city’s west.
“All of that material could be producing, for Victoria, probably 500 megawatts of electricity if it was done with the efficient, best-practice systems,” he told 774 ABC Melbourne‘s Jon Faine.
It comes as a Senate committee this week recommended the Federal Government adopt a national plan to manage the retirement of coal-fired power stations.
Planning Panels Victoria is due to report to the Minister for Planning in January regarding a proposal to expand the Ravenhall landfill.