Cairns Advanced Resource Recovery Technology (ARRT) Facility

Cairns Advanced Resource Recovery Technology (ARRT) Facility is an Alternative Waste Treatment project located at Portsmith, approximately 2km south of the Cairns CBD in Far North Queensland. It was registered in July 2013 and operates on an unknown area size, which is typical for projects that occupy a localized industrial facility footprint rather than a broad geographic landmass.

Alternative Waste Treatment (AWT) projects involve diverting eligible waste materials from traditional landfills, where they would otherwise decompose and release harmful methane greenhouse gas emissions, and instead processing them in a specialized treatment facility to recover resources. Standard requirements involve processing municipal solid waste or commercial waste through enclosed composting, anaerobic digestion, or mechanical processing to achieve emissions abatement.

The surrounding Cairns region is characterized by a tropical climate with high, summer-dominant rainfall and significant humidity. Regional land use is heavily focused on agriculture, particularly sugarcane farming and horticulture. The soils in the coastal region are typically fertile alluvial soils and clay loams (including Dermosols and Vertosols), which respond well to organic nutrient inputs and support the region's intensive cropping.

This project transitioned from a revoked Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) methodology to the updated 2015 AWT method. It diverts mixed solid waste from local landfills and processes it using specialized enclosed drum composting known as Bedminster technology. The Veolia-operated facility has the capacity to process up to 125,000 tonnes of residential and commercial waste each year, servicing over 150,000 residents across the Cairns, Douglas, and Mareeba local government areas. A notable outcome of this project is the production of Veolia Organic Crop-ARRT™ Regenerate compost. This high-quality organic compost is sold to local sugarcane producers and horticultural enterprises, helping farmers manage on-farm nutrients, improve soil water-holding capacity, and reduce sediment run-off into the Great Barrier Reef catchment. A Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC368807) for this project was successfully completed in August 2022 after fulfilling its delivery of ACCUs to the Australian Government.