Macquarie Bank are the big investors into the incinerators, they’ve poured $100 of millions into the projects. WA has been the worst performing state for recycling and reuse by a long way so with the installation of the incinerators we immediately hit the state and National recycling targets as the plants are waste to energy, politicians love it. A large number of councils have signed heads of terms agreements with the plants, that backed the business case to invest. Council tenders in future will specify the disposal point, the waste companies (Veolia, Cleanaway etc) will tender for the provision of bins, collection, bulking up via transfer and transport to the end site. The hard to burn, low calorific value material, ie the food and greens are being separated via the 3rd bin collection. All the class 2 and above landfills have methane collection systems, most of them turn the gas via gen sets into electricity that’s used on the site to power lights etc. Methane collection is not an exact science as the methane content varies across the site and varies from what’s actually in the waste mass. Some landfills don’t produce enough methane for a few years, the % isn’t high enough and it’s flared off instead of being used. Sbang in Thailand have some great plants and are very successful but the feedstock is agricultural waste, a pretty stable and consistent material, not the contents of our waste bins that have everything in from old chips packets, batteries, shampoo bottles etc etc. M8 could have still been successful, personally I would have installed a car tire drainage blanket at the landfill, something used very successfully in Europe. Take car tires, stand them up over 3 layers and that acts as a compression and drainage blanket at the base of the site, you then put waste on top and build upwards. Your leachate and methane collection pipes are laid at the bottom, safe from machines. The blanket is part of your work’s approval which means you charge to bring in tires before your open, revenue is coming in. Winterton landfill used 7 million car tires on theirs, they charged 1 pound sterling for each, $1.5 ish. Gingin needed some out of the box thinking, something like that would have covered the entire build cost and DWER would have supported it as it helps solve the huge tire problems, especially with Elan energy going up in flames last year, Perth largest tire recycling operation. Change Maddingtons license to accept liquid waste streams for fixation (absorption) and take that material to Gingin. Collier Waste in Trafford Park in Manchester is the bench mark there, they take liquid waste, mix it with other solid waste streams to solidify the material, then they take it to their own landfill. They have a room full of accountants to help count the money they earn. Cleanaway have fixation pits at their Kwinana operation but there is nothing north of the city. Once again, out of the box thinking required by the M8 team. Maddington is ideal for trucks to goto coming down from the north of WA, from the mines. Target that material. I genuinely think the Thais have bought into Tom Rudas’s plans, I’m sure they’re not stupid but probably think the waste market is most advanced than it is. In the last 30 years, this industry hasn’t really changed, technology has appeared in the truck drivers cabs with gps etc but the job is still picking bins up and taking them somewhere, and dominated by the huge players as the barrier to entry is massive. same shit, different day.
M8S Price at posting:
0.7¢ Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Not Held
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