Victorian tannery Rosedale Leather has saved $140,000 so far this year by diverting 100% of its prescribed industrial waste to compost and avoiding expensive landfill levies.
Rosedale Leather tans hides for use as leather car seats in the automotive industry, and has faced increased competition from companies based overseas in recent years, according to quality and environmental manager, Neville Hirth.
He told CE Daily that when the Victorian Government announced plans to ramp up landfill levies for prescribed industrial waste, Rosedale Leather had to find a cheaper way to dispose of its waste – some of which is contaminated with chrome – or face the prospect of going out of business.
"Our survival was part of the equation. It's cheaper to manufacture hides overseas than in Australia, so every cent counts," said Hirth.
Waste 'beneficial' for composting
Over an 18-month period, Rosedale Leather worked in partnership with EPA Victoria to sort and test the individual waste streams and work on a solution to divert them from landfill.
Rosedale Leather has three main streams of prescribed industrial waste: chrome-free leather trimmings and shavings, "wet blue" leather trimmings and shavings from chrome tanning, and filtercake from the effluent treatment plant.
The three waste streams were identified as containing nutrients and trace elements, making them suitable for composting if the heavy metal content could be kept low enough.
The EPA then engaged the Victorian Department of Primary Industry (DPI) to provide technical expertise and conduct small scale compost trials.
Trials found that all of the waste streams could be used as compost feedstock, and that their addition was beneficial to the final compost product.
Rosedale began diverting some of its prescribed industrial waste to Gippsland Water's <a href="http://www.gippswater.com.au/OurServices/Wastemanagement/SoilandOrganicRecyclingFacility/tabid/247/Default.aspxtarget="_blank">Soil and Organic Recycling Facility (SORF) in Dutson Downs in October last year. By December, 100% of the waste was going to the SORF.
Before transporting it to the facility, the waste is divided into three separate bins according to the level of chrome content.
Hirth said Gippsland Water adds the waste to the SORF compost in different proportions from the three streams following a "recipe" that ensures the chrome content is kept below guideline levels.
Compost research had a five-month payback
Including transport and disposal levies, it would now cost Rosedale Leather $550 a tonne to dispose of the waste at the Lyndhurst hazardous waste landfill in Melbourne, according to Hirth.
But the new procedures cost the company only $120 a tonne and allows the waste to be safely recycled.
That has saved the company $140,000 in the ten months since it began sending its waste to the SORF in December last year.
Hirth said Rosedale Leather spent $33,000 researching the compost solution with government agencies, but this investment was recouped within five months.
'Be proactive and work with the EPA'
Hirth advised companies to find better solutions to waste management by experimenting and working closely with the EPA.
"I'd ring the EPA every week just to build the relationship so that things would flow better," he said.
"Take the time and work with them and come up with ideas."
