Material Recovery Facility

Cairns Regional Council runs the material recovery facility at its Portsmith waste site, where household recycling is sorted. With new funding to expand, Council engaged Urban Sync to review the project and obtain the approvals for a larger, more efficient facility.

The new building has about 2,975 square metres of floor area and is designed to process 15 tonnes of recyclables an hour, up to 25,000 tonnes a year. It sits alongside the existing facility so sorting can continue during the construction, and the old building then becomes storage. The facility serves the Cairns region and may take recyclables from across Far North Queensland.

The challenge

• A constrained site: the land is mapped for flooding, storm tide, coastal processes, acid sulfate soils and airport environs, and sits next to fish habitat areas.
• Rail corridor: part of the site is within 25 metres of a State railway corridor, which triggered referral to the State.
• Building height: the sorting equipment needed a building of about 11 metres, above the 8.5-metre benchmark in the zone.
• Contaminated land: the site is on the Environment Management Register, so the application had to sit within the existing site management plan and environmental authority.

Our role

• Reviewed the project for Council and advised on the approvals needed.
• Sought written pre-lodgement advice from the State and held informal discussions with Council’s planners.
• Prepared and lodged the planning report and application, including assessments against the State Development Assessment Provisions and CairnsPlan 2016.
• Coordinated the plant and building layouts from RDT Engineering and the civil, earthworks and stormwater designs from STP Consultants.
• Made a performance-based case for the building height and landscaping.
• Managed the State referral and airport advice through to a decision.

What was approved

• A new material recovery facility building of about 2,975 square metres and up to 10.95 metres high.
• Processing capacity of 15 tonnes an hour, up to 25,000 tonnes of recyclables a year.
• A new service area, with on-site turning so all vehicles enter and leave in a forward gear.
• Earthworks, drainage and stormwater management for the new building.
• Continued operation of the existing facility during construction, then reuse as storage.