An artist's impression of a large, flat building with trucks outside.

An artist’s impression of the new materials recovery facility to be built in Hume.

31 January 2025

In brief:

  • A new recycling facility for the ACT will be built in Hume.
  • Veolia will partner with the ACT Government to design, build and operate the new facility.
  • The facility will have world-leading technology to recover and sort recyclable materials.
  • It is expected to be operational in 2028.

A new recycling facility for Canberra is on the way.

Veolia will partner with the ACT Government to design, build and operate the new facility.

This will be built within the current bounds of the Hume Resource Recovery Estate on Recycling Road in Hume.

Construction is expected to begin in 2026.

World-leading technology

The Government selected Veolia as its industry partner after a competitive procurement process last year.

Veolia is a leader in water, energy, and waste management. It will bring world-leading technology to Canberra to build one of the country’s most advanced materials recovery facilities.

Veolia will run the facility under a long-term contract for 20 years, once it is operational.

A state-of-the-art facility

The new facility will be able to sort paper and cardboard, glass, plastic, steel and aluminium.

Its sophisticated technology will increase recovery rates, producing high purity in materials for recycling and resource recovery.

Technology includes:

  • a glass purification plant
  • sophisticated automatic recognition
  • screens to separate paper
  • laser optical identification with air jets to separate plastics
  • powerful magnets to extract metals.

Supporting Canberra and its future

The new, larger facility will be able to process up to 115,000 tonnes of mixed recyclables per year.

This supports a growing Canberra and changing consumer behaviour that is contributing to increases in recoverable material over time.

Additional benefits

The project will create more than 130 new jobs.

Removing the need to transport the ACT’s recyclable materials interstate will have a further environmental impact.

A new education space will also be built. This will allow the community and school groups to visit and learn about how recyclable products are processed, to be transformed into renewed items.

Capabilities and features of the new facility include:

Improved recycling facilities

  • Sorting: advanced optical sorting to better separate, identify, sort and segregate recycling to higher purity levels, reducing contaminants for better quality end market products.
  • Glass recycling: glass crushing and washing facilities to provide better quality crushed glass that can be used in a wider range of products.
  • Container recycling: improved and expanded baling processes for Container Deposit Scheme materials.

Improved environmental aspects

  • Greenstar rating: the building will be designed to meet specific Greenstar requirements to reduce the facility’s carbon footprint.
  • Wastewater management: wastewater capture treatment and reuse with stormwater management infrastructure to achieve environmental compliance.

Advanced management systems

  • Fire management: advanced fire detection and suppression systems.
  • Data collection: sophisticated data collection, management, and analysis systems.
  • Flexibility to incorporate new innovations, improvements in technology and adapt to changing recycling priorities and materials.

State-of-the-art fire detection, mitigation and control systems will safeguard the site from fires. These can be caused by items such as lithium batteries or gas bottles finding their way into the recycling stream.

Non-recyclable or flammable items should not be put in recycling bins. This does happen from time to time, though, warranting the need for these extra safety measures.

Interim recycling

Canberrans can rest assured that the items they put in their yellow household bins are still being recycled.

Until the new facility is complete, recycling services will continue to be delivered by the current contractor, Re.Group.

The new recycling facility is funded via a joint investment of $26 million from the ACT and Australian governments.

The construction program includes the demolition of the previous material recovery facility, which is expected to commence around mid-2025.

The facility is expected to be operational in 2028.

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