Converting rubbish to energy has emerged as a new year's resolution for the Gold Coast, with ratepayers facing a $158 million waste levy over the next decade unless recycling rates are drastically improved.
A council report on a potential waste-to-energy facility in the city's north is expected in early 2023.
Mayor Tom Tate said the "technology is there now" and that by 2032, no waste should be sent to landfill on the Gold Coast.
"The [landfill] we already have, it gives out gas, we can't use it for something like two decades and who would want to live on top of a tip?" he said.
The Queensland government has committed to a goal of diverting 80 per cent of all waste from landfill by 2030, with the Gold Coast's current recycling rate sitting at about 35 per cent.
Ratepayers will also be charged a state waste levy, depending on the amount of rubbish being sent to landfill, which is estimated to hit a total of $158 million over the next decade on current trends.
But waste-to-energy facilities remain in their infancy in Australia, with multi-million-dollar proposals in other council areas facing drawn-out delays and economic factors limiting the technology's feasibility.
How does it work?
Senior lecturer of hazardous waste management at Deakin University Trevor Thornton said waste-to-energy facilities burned "virtually anything" to generate electricity, but that some materials had different "calorific values".
"So how much does it take to get it to burn and how much energy can you get from it?" he said.
"Paper, cardboard, organics such as garden waste, they all give up a lot of energy.
"But if you start burning wet material, say, food for example, you tend to not get that much energy out of it.
"You don't want to be burning materials such as plastics that can be converted into other products otherwise you're going to have to mine and process oils to create new product.
"We've got to look at the waste avoidance, the reduction and the recycling as the primary objectives in the first instance."
Is it greener and cheaper?
Dr Thornton says waste-to-energy facilities still produce greenhouse gases, but can reduce the amount of methane being emitted from landfill, which is a more potent short-term contributor to climate change.
But if a facility becomes overly dependent on certain types of rubbish as a fuel source, it could create an incentive to produce more waste, rather than recycle it.
Moreover, emissions also depend on the type of waste, with burning plastics akin to burning low-grade oil.
The cost of the electricity being generated depends on the size and location of the facility, Dr Thornton said.
"If you were going to put a waste-to-energy plant in the middle of Australia, your infrastructure costs are going to be huge and it won't economically viable," he said.
"There have been cases overseas where they've built smaller-scale waste-to-energy to power say an industrial estate."
What about the smell?
Dr Thornton said modern facilities were far different to incinerators commonly used in the 1970s.
"Technology has improved dramatically and the other side of it is that the environment agencies have fairly strict controls in terms of emission limits, smoke and order," he said.
"We still don't want them right next to hospitals or schools or houses.
"It's not just the processing plant, it's also the storage of waste."
Dr Thornton said the city must process enough non-recyclable waste to make it economically viable.
"How are we going to collect this material? How are we going to ensure people don't put the wrong things into their bins? How are we going to transport them?" he said.
Broader recycling problems
Cr Tate said the council could introduce new kerbside bins to make sorting household waste accessible and affordable.
"Thereby you've got bins for glass, you got bins for food product, bin for recyclable plastic and paper, and you've got bins for green waste," he said.
Last month, the council announced the rollout of an additional 100,000 kerbside green waste bins, diverting 27,000 tonnes from landfill.
But the chief executive of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association, Gayle Sloan, said "we actually need to think about designing products differently".
"So we design our waste and pollution and products can be reused," she said.
"Then we need to buy it back and use Australian recycled content."
