Port Macquarie Hastings Council Avoided Emissions from Diverting Legacy Waste from Landfill through a Mechanical Processing, Separation, and Stabilisation, and Enclosed Aerobic Composting Alternative Waste Treatment Facility

Port Macquarie Hastings Council Avoided Emissions from Diverting Legacy Waste from Landfill through a Mechanical Processing, Separation, and Stabilisation, and Enclosed Aerobic Composting Alternative Waste Treatment Facility is an Alternative Waste Treatment (AWT) project located approximately 5km southwest of the Port Macquarie city centre on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. It was registered in December 2013 and entails the construction and ongoing operation of a new AWT facility.

Alternative Waste Treatment projects generate carbon credits by diverting eligible mixed solid waste from traditional landfills, where it would otherwise decompose and release harmful methane gas. Instead, the waste is processed through alternative methods such as mechanical separation, biological stabilisation, and enclosed composting. The standard requirements of this methodology necessitate strict ongoing measurement of the quantity and type of eligible municipal solid waste diverted to the facility, alongside calculations modelling the avoided greenhouse gas emissions.

The Port Macquarie region features a humid, subtropical climate characterized by historically high rainfall. Land use in the surrounding area is a mixture of coastal urban development, forestry, tourism, and cattle grazing. Soils in the immediate Hastings River catchment generally consist of coastal sands, podzols, and alluvial clay loams.

This specific project uses enclosed composting technology to actively process legacy mixed solid waste into a combustible fuel substitute. The project initially transitioned from a revoked 2013 Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) method, continuing its operations under the updated 2015 AWT determination. Supported by project agent Corporate Carbon Advisory Pty Ltd, the Council secured a fixed delivery carbon abatement contract (CAC176776) with the Clean Energy Regulator in May 2016. This contract was successfully completed in June 2023, achieving its goal of delivering 78,000 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to the Commonwealth out of the approximately 78,636 units issued to the project over its crediting lifespan.