The Gold Coast is confronting a significant waste management challenge, with local landfills expected to reach capacity within the next decade. Mayor Tom Tate has warned that the cost of waste disposal could increase by as much as 300 percent.

To address this issue, Tate has proposed the Advanced Resource Recovery Centre (ARRC), a $1.6 billion facility aimed at recycling waste and generating electricity by 2032. The ARRC would utilize a waste-to-energy process, which involves burning rubbish to produce energy.

Since 2019, the Queensland state government has implemented a waste levy, charging councils based on the volume of waste sent to landfills. However, recycling rates on the Gold Coast have stagnated, with 53 percent of recyclable materials ending up in landfills. This has resulted in a $138 million budget shortfall for the local government.

Tate expressed concern about the rising costs of transporting waste to Ipswich's landfill, stating, "One day Ipswich is going to wake up and say, 'We don't want to be the armpit of south-east Queensland.'" He believes that the waste-to-energy facility could divert 97 percent of rubbish from landfills, allowing the Gold Coast to manage its waste more effectively.

The ARRC would be the third waste-to-energy facility in Australia, joining over 2,000 similar facilities worldwide. The process involves using an 850-degree Celsius furnace to burn residual waste, which generates steam to power turbines and produce electricity. The facility is expected to process 660,000 tonnes of waste annually, primarily sourced from the Gold Coast and neighboring councils.

By-products from the process include bottom ash, which can be used in road construction, while emissions will be filtered through an air-flue gas system to remove pollutants. Grant Gabriel, the director of ARRC, emphasized the modern technology being employed, stating, "The incinerators we had in the 1970s are not what we're building here today. We're building modern, high-tech facilities capable of resolving our residual waste challenges in an environmentally sustainable way that protects public health."

Under Queensland regulations, the ARRC will focus solely on residual waste, which is collected in red kerbside bins. The facility is projected to generate 65 megawatts of electricity annually, enough to power approximately 85,000 homes. Gabriel noted that Australia lags behind other countries in waste recovery, saying, "We are, when you start looking at our recovery rates here in Australia, 20 to 30 years behind other parts of the world."

Internationally, waste management practices have evolved significantly. The United Kingdom, for example, introduced a landfill tax in 1996, which led to a quadrupling of household recycling rates by 2010. However, these rates have since stalled at around 45 percent. In contrast, the amount of waste incinerated in England has increased by 130 percent since 2012, with less than 10 percent of waste now sent to landfills.

As the Gold Coast grapples with its waste management issues, the proposed ARRC represents a potential solution to the growing crisis, aiming to improve recycling rates and reduce reliance on landfills.