Australia is set to embrace energy from waste, but should it?
Overlooking the huge Woodlawn landfill about three hours from Sydney, the scale of Australia's waste challenge is laid bare.
All day, every day, a procession of trucks make their way to the bottom of the former open pit mine and dump their loads of rubbish.
Nearly half of Sydney's non-recyclable waste winds up here.
"1,000,000 tonnes (per year) arrives here at Woodlawn on a train," CEO of Veolia Australia and NZ, Richard Kirkman told 7.30.
"That's what we do with it. We put it in this landfill."
Just down the road from the landfill, Veolia is proposing to build a plant that will burn rubbish in a high-tech furnace to produce electricity. The technology, known as energy from waste, is common around the world.
"There's an incredible opportunity, I think, in Australia to convert from land-filling our residual waste to move to energy from waste," Mr Kirkman said.
The proposed energy from waste plant at Woodlawn would burn 380,000 tonnes of rubbish a year, producing enough electricity to power about 40,000 homes.
But it will also emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when rubbish is burned, and produce tens of thousands of tonnes of bottom ash — in the form of non-combustible materials like stones, grit, glass, and rocks.
There are currently 11 energy from waste plants either operating or proposed across the country.
In the Perth suburb of Kwinana, Australia's first energy from waste plant opened in 2024 after years of delays. Another plant, located in East Rockingham, Western Australia, is almost complete.
Six energy from waste plants are planned in Victoria, two in New South Wales, and one in Queensland.
Proponents have long argued that energy from waste is more sustainable than landfill because energy is created from what would otherwise be thrown away.
But many critics argue that the practice should be known by what we used to call it: incineration. And they dispute that it is in any way sustainable.
"I don't want my kids to grow up in a throwaway society, one that is unsustainable and where your attitude to waste is, 'I can just toss it away because we can throw it in an incinerator and burn it'," said farmer Tom Martin, part of the Longwater Agricultural Association, a local group trying to stop the Woodlawn project.
For decades energy from waste plants surged in Europe. There are now 500 plants that provide electricity and heating and Denmark was a pioneer.
Copenhagen's Amager Bakke plant is famed for its ski run on the roof, where visitors can enjoy downhill fun literally on top of rubbish.
But University of Copenhagen researcher Stine Madsen says that recently — as Denmark focuses on its greenhouse gas emissions target — the perception of energy from waste has changed dramatically.
"There's really a growing focus on the CO2 emissions that come from waste incineration. And to meet that national target, incineration is considered problematic because it leads to CO2 emissions," Ms Madsen said.
Mr Kirkman says emissions from energy from waste plants are far less damaging than those from landfills.
"We have to reduce the methane we emit from landfills, and it's proven that [energy from waste] is better. That's why it's public policy," he said.
The emissions are just one problem Denmark has with the process. The country doesn't produce enough rubbish to keep them going and has to import waste to keep the plants running.
"You have a state-of-the-art facility, but you also need to feed it with waste … and the whole narrative around waste is changing."
Near the proposed Woodlawn plant in NSW, many locals are angry. State policy bans incinerators in metropolitan Sydney, but not in the areas where they live.
"We feel very discriminated against," said Paige Davis from Communities Against The Tarago Incinerator (CATTI).
"The NSW government has decided from a precautionary principle that incinerators can't be built in Sydney because of the risk to human health and the environment. What about us? Why don't we count?"
Local farmer Tom Martin worries for the health of his livestock, with the energy from waste plant just five kilometres away. He believes if incinerating rubbish isn't suitable in Sydney, it shouldn't be suitable near his farm.
In the Melbourne suburb of Hampton Park, Jill Nambu and her neighbours are opposing a new waste transfer station.
Hundreds of rubbish trucks a day could be coming and going for the next 25 years.
Veolia, which runs the landfill site wants to build a waste transfer station for rubbish. Trucks will then carry trash to a proposed energy from waste plant in Maryvale, 120 kilometres away in Gippsland.
"It makes me want to cry," Ms Nambu said.
"I don't understand why they have to put it literally right in a community residential area."
Groups opposed to the waste transfer station have also protested at Victoria's parliament.
Veolia's development application was refused by the state's Environmental Protection Agency, but the company is appealing the decision.
Mr Kirkland says he understands why locals may object to these projects but believes they are essential.
"Every week they put their bin out, and it has to be collected, and it has to go somewhere."
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