Our multi-million dollar recycling facility, which processes recyclables from residents' yellow-lid kerbside bins, has been recognised with a national award for waste innovation.
The Southern Material Recycling Facility (SMRF), which officially opened in late 2021, won the Outstanding Facility Award at the Waste Innovation and Recycling Awards held in Melbourne last week.
The SMRF, which is a joint initiative of Southern Region Waste Recycling Authority (SRWRA) - a subsidiary of the City of Holdfast Bay, City of Marion and City of Onkaparinga - and Australian recycling and resource recovery specialist Re.Group - is South Australia's largest household recycling facility.
It's also home to world-leading advanced screening and optical and robotic sorting technologies for paper, cardboard, plastics, metals and glass thanks to grants received by both federal and state governments.
Spanning 4400m2, the facility has been designed to meet the highest standards of recycling purity to ensure nothing goes to waste.
It uses optical sorting machines which detect the size and shape of items, along with density and magnetic properties.
Ultraviolet, infrared and visible light detection can separate plastics including PET plastic soft drink bottles to HDPE plastic milk containers.
This is followed by an air jet which blasts the object into its designated sorting bin.
Residents also play an important part in ensuring the recycling facility operates to its maximum capability, by putting only recyclable materials into the yellow-lid kerbside bins.
The SMRF processes 25 tonnes of yellow bin recyclables every hour and up to 60,000 tonnes a year from Holdfast Bay residents, along with household waste from the City of Marion and City of Onkaparinga, the Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island.
