A $600,000 boost from EPA Victoria’s HazWaste Fund has helped Geocycle , a Dandenong company, to develop a ‘megablender’ that stops thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gases from being produced, as well as recycling hazardous waste into fuel.
The Victorian Government funding was in addition to $4 million in federal funding provided through the Australia-Pacific partnership on Clean Development and Climate. Geocycle have launched the megablender that saves thousands of tonnes of hazardous waste from going to landfill.
The megablender machine works by re-processing waste into a fuel that can be used in cement kilns. Steel drums and wastes are fed through the machine’s shredder, which separates the materials for recycling and reprocessing. Geocycle have nicknamed the megablender machine as ‘BOB’, standing for Big Oversize Blender.
Funding was provided to Geocycle as part of the Victorian Government’s HazWaste Fund programme, an initiative that supports industry in reducing the amount of hazardous waste going to landfill. According to Geocycle, the benefits of the megablender machine include:
- An estimated 16,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide saved by 2012, the equivalent of approximately 3900 cars each year
- Approximately 6 to 7000 tonnes of high hazard waste stopped from going to landfill each year by 2012
- Net energy savings of around 198,000 GJ per annum by 2012, the energy use of more than 4000 average houses
- Over 1000 tonnes of steel recovered for recycling or re-use each year
- The machine processes contaminated steel drums from industrial sources that would go to landfill. The machine can support the manufacturing industry to reduce waste and allow reprocessing of potentially hazardous materials