Founded on the premise that there’s no such thing as waste, ResourceCo has firmly set its sights on the decarbonisation of infrastructure development and heavy industries through innovative resource recovery.
There’s not much that ResourceCo doesn’t recycle. From construction and demolition waste, commercial and industrial waste to soils and tyres, the company lives its commitment in making sure that waste is never wasted.
What most might view as ‘waste’, ResourceCo sees opportunity; resources that need not be sent to landfill – if the right mindset is applied.
In three decades, the company has repurposed more than 60 million tonnes of ‘waste’. In doing so, it has helped its customers leave a lighter carbon footprint with the abatement of over 2.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Today, ResourceCo is one of the most diverse recyclers in the country, providing landfill avoiding resource recovery services alongside sustainable recycled products to multinational companies.
From tier one contractors all the way through to small business and independent operators, ResourceCo offers multifaceted resource recovery services, with several sites holding the capacity to undergo cross functional operations.
It organises itself under four main pillars – recycling and waste, energy, soil reuse and recycling and tyre recycling.
Tyrecycle
With a national network of services and processing capabilities. Tyrecycle is one of Australia’s leading collectors and recyclers of end-of-life tyres.
Jim Fairweather, Tyrecycle’s Chief Executive Officer, says Tyrecycle’s offtake partners include Australia’s leading road surface finishers, who increasingly use the company’s highly refined crumb rubber.
“It goes without saying, when it comes to road infrastructure in Australia, quality is paramount, and we pride ourselves on the quality products we supply into the sector,” says Fairweather.
“What is also becoming increasingly important is sustainable infrastructure.”
Fairweather says every tonne of Tyrecycle’s crumb rubber used in asphalt mixes represents a potential greenhouse gas saving of 2463 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions.
Meaning, decarbonised infrastructure outcomes have shifted from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’.
“We’ve seen a real uplift in the Australian crumb rubber market,” he says.
“In recent years our crumb capacity has tripled to 30,000 tonnes. Last year we achieved approximately 20,000 tonnes per annum sold domestically.
“We have plans in place to push that up to 30,000 tonnes per year, off the back of domestic demand.”
Annually, Tyrecycle collects in the order of 20 million tyres, to put that into perspective, if every tyre were to be lined up next to each other, the total length would equate to a return trip from Perth to Sydney.
In addition to crumb and granules, Tyrecycle manufactures tyre-derived fuel (TDF), an alternative fuel source that’s decarbonising heavy industries.
TDF is utilised to displace the use of fossil fuels in high-energy consuming industries, such as in kilns in the production of cement.
Fairweather says most of the fuel is sent to Japan and Korea, who are actively looking for non-fossil fuel energy sources.
“Not only does our TDF reduce an industrial reliance on fossil fuels, its high calorific value means it also emits significantly lower levels of carbon dioxide,” he says.
“Meaning TDF has a better carbon dioxide equivalent emissions profile than the typical fuels consumed by our customers.”
On the continued growth path, Tyrecycle is focusing significant energy on the recycling of mining truck tyres. Fairweather says these off the road (OTR) tyres have a low recycling rate, which in the eyes of the teams at ResourceCo and Tyrecycle, presents an exciting opportunity.
“Currently approximately only one per cent of mining tyres are recycled, the rest are buried in pits or left on site,” he says.
“We are working closely with the resources industry as we build Australia’s first dedicated OTR tyre recycling plant in Port Hedland, Western Australia.
“It will be a game changer for the industry and will be operational by mid-November.”
Construction and demolition waste recycling
The cornerstone of ResourceCo’s resource recovery heritage is the sorting, refining and remanufacturing of C&D (Construction and Demolition) waste into a wide array of products to be used for civil construction applications.
Brad Lemmon, ResourceCo Recycling and Waste Chief Executive Officer, says the company receives more than one million tonnes of C&D waste each year, 99 per cent of which is recycled into new products for various markets.
“ResourceCo offers a genuine one stop shop service to the civil infrastructure sector,” says Lemmon.
“Trucks arrive at our strategically located sites, loaded with C&D material to tip off, when they leave the same trucks can be loaded with high quality products, ready for supply to the same or another site” he says.
ResourceCo is continuing to build on its capability of offering the market rubble and aggregate products that meet technical specification.
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In acknowledging the evolving requirement for infrastructure projects to have greater sustainability outcomes, Lemmon says ResourceCo is adding to its offering. Sites are now contributing to a project’s Green Star Building accreditation, along with outgoing products having Environmental Product Declarations (EPD).
“Our customers place a genuine value in landfill diversion services and materials that meet technical and sustainability requirements,” he says.
“This is why we’ve worked with the likes of renowned sustainability consultants thinkstep and PINDA Life Cycle Thinking, who have assessed and verified the environmental footprint of ResourceCo’s products. This includes the potential of global warming and land use impacts which are associated with the company’s products.
“With many products already registered with EPD Australasia, ResourceCo is demonstrating how we can genuinely and verifiably help our customers achieve sustainability benefits for their projects.”
ResourceCo’s C&D waste disposal service is complemented by its commercial and industrial (C&I) waste management services.
Henry Anning, Chief Executive Officer of ResourceCo’s Energy business says ResourceCo’s landfill diversion of C&I waste maximises the inherit value of all material. This is achieved through mechanical sorting and separation methods, ensuring that waste is segregated into different material streams.
“Lighter than C&D waste, due to its highly variable composition, C&I waste is often, and easily sent to landfill,” he says.
“That’s where we step in, we sort the material to extract glass, metals, timber and inert fractions for further recycling.”
Anning says the company then refines residual material further to produce an alternate fuel source for high energy consuming industries.
“Our processes yield an approximate 95 per cent landfill diversion rate which is great for our customers and the environment,” he says. “This alternate fuel source not only avoids an end of life in landfill, but directly aids in the development of more sustainable infrastructure. Using our fuel reduces our customers’ emissions, giving them the ability to have a more sustainable product and service to offer to the market.”
Soil reuse and recycling
Whether the task is transforming waste soil into products for new markets or relocating materials directly for reuse, Steve Harrison, ResourceCo Soil Reuse and Recycling Chief Executive Officer, says ResourceCo demonstrates a unique ability to manage a wide range of soil needs.
“Our soil reuse and recycling services provide reusable, structural and sustainable soil export and import solutions across the country,” he says.
Harrison says the company prides itself on the live tracking of end-to-end material movement linking drivers to solution sites. This chain of custody service can be integrated into customer portals and adds to the company’s continued soil-based innovations.
With a demonstrated track record of successfully delivering some of Australia’s largest road infrastructure projects, including the WestConnex project in Sydney and the North East Link project in Melbourne, the soil reuse and recycling team has a solid foundation to leverage further growth.
“In addition to bulk excavation material movement, we supply and manage the placement of fill materials that are reused in rehabilitation projects, such as in quarries, agricultural or land improvement projects,” Harrison says.
By applying ResourceCo’s group-wide philosophy of maximising the potential of all resources, Harrison says the soil reuse and recycling operations have evolved significantly in recent years.
“By adopting the methodologies of sorting, screening and treating the soils we handle, we are now in the space of manufacturing different types of commodities, ready for resupply into the market,” he says.
“When it comes to soil, we’re committed to doing as much as we can for our customers. We export soil, we sort it, sift it and blend it. We select the best products for our customers’ needs and, if part of a rehabilitation project, we oversee the placement of material too.”
Harrison says the capability to give soil new life strongly aligns with and complements ResourceCo’s other materials recycling operations.
Bright future
The basis of ResourceCo’s growth, regardless of its various operations, has always focused on working closely with its customers to understand their waste disposal and product supply needs.
“It doesn’t matter which part of ResourceCo’s operations someone looks at, providing efficient and sustainable outcomes for our customers is central to what we do,” says Harrison.
Adapting to the changing needs of the markets within which ResourceCo operates, Harrison says the company will continue to work with infrastructure partners to expand on its sustainability and performance standards.
“Wherever we can, we try and refine our processes to ensure that the changing needs of the market are always met,” he says.
This article was originally published in the November edition of our magazine. To read the magazine, click here.