The CEFC has announced the allocation of $75 million in debt finance to help develop Queensland’s upcoming flagship construction and demolition (C&D) recycling facility in Pinkenba.
Operated by Rino Recycling, the $89 million facility comes ahead of a construction boom brought by the upcoming 2032 Olympics and is expected to will deliver over 55,363tCO2-e of carbon abatement annually, which is equivalent to the emission produced by approximately 12,000 cars.
Awarded through CEFC’s $100 million Australian Recycling Investment Fund, the $75 million investment aims to back initiatives addressing Australia’s growing waste stream and accelerate the country’s transition to a circular economy “by deploying best-in-class technology to further develop our recycling sector,” said Ian Learmonth, CEFC’s CEO.
The facility will process more than 1 million tonnes of C&D waste annually, including concrete, excavation material, vacuum waste and skip bin waste, diverting a significant amount of valuable resources from landfill.
The upcoming facility is also equipped with leading global recycling technology developed by Turmec from Ireland and CDE from Northern Ireland, boosting efforts to address the underdeveloped C&D recycling sector in Southeast Queensland.
“The design philosophy behind this state-of-the-art facility is to not only deliver world-leading recovery rates but to create the highest quality outputs as value-add products to the building, construction and manufacturing industries,” said Rino Recycling General Manager Daniel Blaser.
The recycling facility is set to become one of Australia’s largest for-throughput volume under one roof and will help Brisbane create a more sustainable Olympics, Blaser said.
Less than a third of all construction and demolition waste around the world is recovered and reused. Australia’s National Waste Report in 2022 revealed that 29 million tonnes of waste came from the C&D sector, which amounts to 38 per cent of all waste generated in Australia.
The new C&D facility in Queensland brings CEFC’s lifetime commitments across the waste and bioenergy sectors to more than $560 million.
