NAWMA’s Material Recovery Facility (MRF) was opened in 2017 and is the only MRF in SA which is owned and operated by local government. It has been designed to future-proof NAWMA, and more broadly South Australia, and has doubled South Australia’s recyclables processing capacity.
The MRF provides a revenue stream for NAWMA’s Constituent Councils – the City of Salisbury, City of Playford and Town of Gawler, while reducing exposure to the often-fickle commercial recycling industry. A five workday operation processes the current 48,000 tonnes per annum collected from yellow-lid kerbside bins in NAWMA’s Constituent Councils and other metro, rural and regional councils. Importantly, the MRF provides employment to around 50 local residents.
Housed inside a large purpose-modified industrial building of some 3,800 sqm, the MRF is a combination of trommels, magnets, eddy-currents, ballistic separators, and manual picking stations, fed by over half a kilometre of conveyor belts.
High quality secondary raw materials (finished goods) recovered at the MRF, including paper, plastics, glass, aluminium and steel, are predominantly marketed locally in Australia as well as internationally. A breakdown for materials recovered in 2022 is provided below.
