Residents in Sydney's eastern suburbs are claiming victory after a three-year battle to stop a waste plant from being built on their doorstep.
The facility would harvest energy from what was incinerated and expel what was left from a 60-metre chimney towering over Matraville homes.
Worried residents campaigned against the facility, earning the political backing of two councils.
However, a new regulation was announced earlier this month by the NSW government banning cogeneration plants around the Sydney basin.
It requires waste-to-energy plants to be built away from dense residential areas, and near Bathurst, Lithgow, Casino and Queanbeyan, where complementary waste facilities already operate.
Matraville resident Jocelyn Castile was concerned about the facility being built so close to her home.
"I can't tell you how relieved I am," Ms Castile said, who has lived in the area for four years.
"I thought it was very wrong in this day and age to put up an incinerator, and especially when it was so close to the residents."
Veolia's planned $250 million facility would have run around the clock burning 165,000 tonnes of construction material and non-organic waste annually to power the Opal Paper Mill on the same site.
This would have reduced Opal's reliance on electricity and gas, freeing up enough power to run 82,000 homes a year and pumping anything left back into the grid.
But the waste powering the eastern suburbs plant would have to be delivered by 21 trucks each day from a site in Western Sydney.
There are some exceptions to the new regulation, however, Veolia's proposal doesn't meet the criteria.
Yet Veolia's application to build the plant remains before the NSW government.
"Veolia is reviewing the new regulations in the context of proposed projects," a company spokesman told the ABC.
"Energy from waste technology, both thermal and biological, has been widely adopted around the world for decades.
"The technology ... helps mitigate climate change, while creating energy resilience as a replacement for fossil fuels."
On its website, the company says its proposed plant would "use the world's best available technology to clean, measure and monitor air emissions".
Over three years, the community group No More Incinerators handed out 30,000 leaflets, gathered 20,000 signatures and held monthly information sessions regarding Veolia's proposal.
Chris Hanson, the group's campaign manager and a retired chemical engineer, said 55 residents gathered to watch the new law clear NSW parliament.
"Everybody was fairly jubilant when it was made official that it wasn't going to go ahead," he said.
"We were just quietly ecstatic."
The grassroots campaign had the support of Randwick and Bayside Councils, which dressed garbage trucks in livery and hired billboards objecting to Veolia's proposal.
"It's really given us the depth to be able to last for three years to continue to fight it," he said.
Randwick Council Mayor Dylan Parker said the long battle left the community united.
"What defines this particular fight was a clearly well-organised battle for an extremely motivated community that wasn't going to accept second-rate treatment just because it wasn't in the well-heeled part of Sydney," he said.
He said he hoped the NSW government "doesn't weaken the law or allow any skirting around it".
Despite the new legislation, some neighbours worry Veolia ANZ — a $2 billion waste, water and energy behemoth — will find a way forward.
"I still don't believe it", Gary Leafe said, who has lived in the area for 70 years.
"I won't celebrate. There are always loopholes."
But most have started pulling down the posters and banners objecting to the plans from the suburb's streets.
They don't feel they are needed anymore.
Ms Castille said she was enjoying the peace and quiet.
"I'm proud to be living in Matraville, and if Veolia tries to get over this hurdle, I will fight."
Editor's note August 17, 2022: An earlier version of this story incorrectly claimed the project would eliminate Opal Paper Mill's reliance on electricity and gas. It would, in fact, reduce its reliance on electricity and gas. It also added the company's position that the plant would "use the world's best available technology to clean, measure and monitor air emissions".
