By Esther Lauaki
Concerned Craigieburn residents are calling for Hume council to reject an application for a proposed waste to energy plant in the suburb, amid concerns the plant will produce hazardous emissions.
The council has received an application from Enrgx for a waste to energy plant at 65 Amaroo Road, Craigieburn. The application is being reviewed by the council and other agencies.
It is not known whether the plant will be an incineration or gasification facility.
The council’s sustainable infrastructure and services director Peter Waite said the council has sought more information about the proposal to better understand what products will be used by the facility to generate energy and how any waste will be treated and disposed of.
Residents have formed a group called No Toxic Incinerator for Hume and have started a petition urging the council to release more information about the plant and reject the application.
The group protested against the plant at Hume council’s November 11 meeting.
They are also calling on the Environment Protection Authority to prevent the plant from being built.
Group spokeswoman Katherine Lawford said the community was quite upset about the proposal.
“We are concerned it will result in the transport of large volumes of waste into Melbourne for incineration,” she said.
“We don’t know if it will be an incineration plant or what it will incinerate and there is little information available.”
Ms Lawford said the group was also concerned the plant would undermine recycling efforts and “encourage wastefulness”.
We think there are far better ways to take care of our recycling crisis. We don’t want such plants to undermine existing recycling activities,” she said.
Yarra Valley Water currently operates a waste to energy plant on Craigieburn Road East in Wollert, opposite the Aurora Treatment Plant.
It opened the plant in June 2017 and transformed more than 45,000 tonnes of food waste into 10,000 megawatt hours of clean energy in its first two years of operation.
-with Laura Michell
