The new Resource Recovery Centre at the Lithgow Solid Waste Facility was officially opened on Friday, 22 September 2023. Trish Doyle MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Environment, Heritage, Climate Change and Energy joined the Mayor, Maree Statham at the opening of this new facility.
Operated by Lithgow Council, the Resource Recovery Centre is a sealed, all-weather facility for waste recycling and disposal. The facility aims to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and assist residents to safely and easily dispose of problem wastes that cannot go into landfill.
The Resource Recovery Centre allows easy sorting of many items for recycling and an undercover area for unloading. In addition to scrap metal, paper/cardboard, mattresses, tyres and e-waste, the new facility now offers recycling for textiles and polystyrene along with a Reuse Shed. Items in the Reuse Shed are available to members of the public to take home for reuse, rather than these items being disposed in landfill.
The Resource Recovery Centre also includes a Community Recycling Centre for common household problem wastes that cannot be put in the kerbside bins, such as paint, batteries, oils, fluorescent tubes, gas bottles, fire extinguishers and smoke detectors. The Community Recycling Centre was supported by the Environmental Trust as part of the NSW Environment Protection Authority’s Waste Less, Recycle More initiative, funded from the waste levy.
Residents who sort their waste into the appropriate areas at the facility can still dispose of permitted waste from the normal day-to-day activities of their single dwelling, transported to the facility by the resident in a car, station wagon, utility or box trailer, free of charge.
Mayor, Maree Statham, said “The opening of the Resource Recovery Centre is a key part of the Council’s ongoing commitment to delivering best practice waste services and facilities to continuously improve landfill diversion rates, protect the local environment and support the local economy.”
“This important infrastructure is an investment in our local community and represents an important step in ensuring affordable and convenient waste management facilities and protection of the local environment now and into the future,” Mayor Statham said.
Trish Doyle said, “Its highly encouraging to see communities all over New South Wales embracing the problem-waste recycling services provided by Community Recycling Centres.
The NSW Government is committed to lifting our recycling rate to 80% by 2030, and the Community Recycling Centres play a role in achieving that target. As NSW works towards a circular economy, Community Recycling Centres help to empower residents to recycle their problem waste freely and easily”.
