BINGO opens world’s largest mixed-waste recycling facility in Western Sydney

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By Rachael Ridley 3 May 2021

The recycling plant is expected to recover approximately 90% of materials, keeping them out of landfill.

Planet Ark partner BINGO Industries has officially opened the world’s largest and most advanced dry mixed-waste recycling facility at its Eastern Creek Recycling Ecology Park in Western Sydney. The $100 million facility is fitted with world-leading resource recovery and manufacturing technology, enabling BINGO to drastically increase the number of materials diverted from landfill and manufacture them into new products on-site. 

When fully operational in July 2021, the plant is expected to process up to 7,000 tonnes of materials a day or 300 tonnes per hour. It will be capable of processing a wide variety of waste including materials from the Construction and Demolition (C&D) and Commercial and Industrial (C&I) sectors. According to the latest data from the 2020 National Waste Report, these two sectors combined generate 80% of Australia’s core waste. 

Construction of the facility was supported by a $5 million grant from the NSW Environmental Trust as part of the NSW Government’s Waste Less, Recycle More initiative funded through the state waste levy. Substantial investment from business and government in waste solutions signifies a shift from the linear ‘take, make, dispose’ mindset towards a circular model that sees waste a resource to be kept in circulation at the highest value for as long as possible. The project has also provided 400 construction jobs and will create a further 100 permanent positions once operational.                     

The Hon. Sussan Ley, Minister for the Environment, was in attendance to celebrate the Eastern Creek Recycling Ecology Park at the launch event on Friday.

“Recycling and waste management are both key environmental issues and economic opportunities. I applaud BINGO for being at the leading edge of the supply curve as the market for recycled materials will continue to grow. We want people, companies and industries to have a genuine reason to recycle, to have confidence in the process and in the new products that will be created,” Minister Ley said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The facility fortifies BINGO Industries’ position as a leader in Australia’s growing circular economy. The advanced on-site screening, sorting and processing technologies will not only allow more materials to be recovered but also produce a higher quality end product. The majority of these materials will be manufactured at the facility into new building and landscaping products made from 100% recycled content available for purchase by building and infrastructure companies, landscaping businesses, councils and the general public.

Nik Comito, Head of Sustainability at BINGO Industries, says the company has invested in research and development of recycling infrastructure to expand its offering of recycled products, which he sees as a benefit to the business, environment and customer. 

“Both our revenue from recycling and recycled product sales has continued to grow over the past three years and this growth area forms an important part of our business strategy,” said Comito. 

“Our commitment to building essential recycling infrastructure ensures our customers have access to highly efficient resource recovery, diverting more materials from landfill.”

As a founding sponsor of the Australian Circular Economy Hub (ACE Hub) and a partner of Planet Ark for more than ten years, circularity and sustainability have and continue to be a key focus for BINGO. 

“Our involvement in the ACE Hub provides us with the opportunity and platform to work collaboratively with industry groups, civil society, governments and not-for-profits in innovating for circular outcomes,” said Comito. 

“We have also conducted several workshops looking at our own supply chains internally and where we could make circular procurement decisions, as well as how we could help our customers make circularity a part of their procurement practices. As a resource recovery business, we have the opportunity to enhance our business model and stretch ourselves to further innovate to keep products and materials in use.”

BINGO also recently became a member of RE100 and is committed to using 100% renewable electricity across its entire network of facilities by 2025. One way the company will achieve this target is through the installation of large-scale rooftop solar systems on its facilities, which began in 2019. Plans are already underway to install rooftop solar at the Eastern Creek site, which has also been fitted with the latest in safety, environment and fire management technology and rain-water catchment tanks.