Cockburn Council has adopted a high-level planning strategy to guide development of its Henderson Waste Recovery Park (HWRP) over the next 30 years.
The site master plan 2026-2055 includes options for short, medium and long-term scenarios, while maintaining business as usual activities such as landfilling and receiving ratepayer waste through the community drop-off facility.
Potential future use investigations include developing additional landfill cells, a volunteer-staffed ‘repurposed shop’, commercialising the weighbridge, operating solar and wind farms and exploring the lease, sale or purchase of land to benefit waste recovery functions and revenue.
City of Cockburn Director Infrastructure Services Anton Lees said ongoing and future uses at Henderson would be partly determined by a predicted two-fold reduction in waste destined for landfill at Henderson in the next one to two years.
“This reduction will be due to the contents of red-lid general waste bins being delivered to the East Rockingham Waste to Energy facility by the City and the other Local Governments who dispose of their waste at Henderson, by the end of 2027,” Mr Lees said.
City of Cockburn Mayor Logan Howlett said despite a predicted 14 per cent increase in the City’s population over the next 20 years, waste management service planning needed to meet changing community need.
“There is a range of options that we must investigate to ensure the ongoing viability and requirements of HWRP which the City owns and has operated for the past 35 years,” Mayor Howlett said.
“Essential site activities include ongoing landfill, and community drop-off and green waste facilities, while a range of discretionary activities will be the subject of business modelling to determine likely financial outcomes before development can be considered.
“There is a range of future revenue streams that could be developed and decision-making will be based on “best value” principles to consider environmental, community and financial aspects.”
Annually, HWRP receives about 160,000 tonnes of waste, of which 146,570 is landfilled.
Landfill waste is anticipated to decrease significantly to about 86,500 tonnes annually, with just 8,250 tonnes from City sources including verge hard waste, residential drop-off and internal generated waste.
The remaining 78,300 tonnes will come from commercial and non-residential drop-off waste.
The HWRP site master plan was adopted by Cockburn Council at its 10 March Ordinary Council Meeting. The plan will be available in the meeting Minutes document on the City’s
website.