Chipping Norton SRF Facility

Chipping Norton SRF Facility is an Alternative Waste Treatment (AWT) project located in Chipping Norton, a suburb within the Liverpool local government area of Greater Sydney, New South Wales. Registered in August 2022, the project operates at the Benedict Recycling Centre on Riverside Road, situated approximately 25km southwest of the Sydney CBD. The facility sits within a dedicated industrial zone adjacent to the Georges River, surrounded by broader urban and commercial land uses typical of the Sydney Basin.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Alternative Waste Treatment) Methodology Determination 2015. This methodology credits the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions achieved by diverting mixed solid waste, such as commercial, industrial, construction, and demolition waste, away from landfills. Instead of decomposing and releasing methane, the waste is processed into a combustible fuel substitute known as Process Engineered Fuel (PEF) or Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF). This fuel is typically used in industrial cement kilns or boilers as a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels like coal.

Environmentally, the region experiences a temperate climate with high rainfall, typical of the Sydney metropolitan area. While the project is an industrial operation, the underlying geology of the site is notable; it was historically a significant sand mining quarry operated by Benedict Industries from 1978 until 1999 before being repurposed for waste management. Consequently, the local soils are characterized by alluvial sand and clay deposits common to the Georges River floodplain.

Benedict Recycling Pty Ltd, the project proponent, is a prominent family-owned waste management company in Sydney. Interestingly, the site has transitioned through a complete lifecycle of land use: originating as a sand extraction quarry, evolving into a reclamation (landfill) site, and finally becoming a modern resource recovery facility. The "SRF" in the project name explicitly refers to the Solid Recovered Fuel produced on-site, marking a shift towards circular economy practices by turning potential landfill waste into energy.