Lake Macquarie's organic food and green waste facility could reach its capacity by 2028.
Remondis, which operates the Lake Macquarie Organics Resource Recovery Facility at Awaba, has submitted a modified development application to Lake Macquarie City Council to expand its operations by 6,000 tonnes per year.
The facility, which is owned by Lake Macquarie City Council, has existing approval to receive 44,000 tonnes of food and green organics from kerbside collection.
The modification requests that approval be expanded to 50,000 tonnes a year; however, the extra 6,000 tonnes would be handled by a third-party operator.
The additional 6,000 tonnes may undergo visual inspection and minor manual decontamination where required at Awaba but would not be shredded, mechanically processed, or placed on the decontamination line.
"Current approvals allow us to hold 250 tonnes of material in the receival hall at any one time, and this is not changing," a spokesperson for Remondis Australia said.
"Material that is not processed at the site will move to an alternate destination within days."
The Remondis spokesperson said they were "liaising with multiple licensed operators across the Hunter" about handling the additional 6,000 tonnes a year.
There would also be an increase in daily vehicle movements from 176 to 200.
From June 14, 2025, to June 14, 2026, the facility accepted 42,900 tonnes of green waste.
When asked when Remondis anticipated the 44,000-tonne limit would be reached, the spokesperson said, "Possibly 2028, depending on weather variables such as rain and sun."
Lake Macquarie City Council is widely praised for its weekly green waste collection service that began in 2018.
The council's Lake Macquarie Waste and Circular Materials Strategy 2026-2030 was tabled in March and revealed that the amount of organic waste had been reduced by 239 kilograms per person since 2013-14.
The weekly green fill collections diverted 270,000 tonnes of organic waste from landfill, and 432,000 greenhouse gas emissions were avoided.
In July the state government announced its Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) recycling reform, which mandates that all NSW councils must have weekly green waste collection by 2030.
Maitland, Cessnock and Singleton councils partnered last year to begin weekly green waste collection, and the City of Newcastle and Port Stephens Council are working together to introduce their FOGO service in mid-2027.
However, the Lake Macquarie Organics Resource Recovery Facility has faced problems.
Last year Remondis was fined $42,000 by the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for two offences in relation to persistent odour issues following heavy rainfall.
The Remondis spokesperson said the odour issues had no bearing on the latest modification.
"The proposed modification is primarily an operational measure to ensure the facility can continue to manage incoming material within its approved capacity limits as processing volumes increase," they said.
"The modification is separate from the work being undertaken to address odour management.
"Remondis has implemented a range of operational and infrastructure improvements over the past two years and continues to work with the NSW EPA to ensure the facility operates in accordance with its environmental obligations and approvals.
"This site performs an important environmental function by giving food and garden waste a second life and diverting such waste from landfill."
Daracon began work on the expansion of the council's nearby Awaba Waste Management Facility earlier this year.
The expansion is expected to prolong the landfill's operational life to at least 2038.
