SDG 9 Wastewater treatment facilities a way to tackle food waste challenge

Project summary

The energy, water and waste sectors share a common policy objective of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and a commitment to the Global Methane Pledge of cutting at least 30% of anthropogenic methane emissions by 2030 from 2020 levels.  

To help achieve these targets, Australian households and businesses will be required to dispose of organic garden and food waste separately in the next few years. Hence the need to quickly develop organics processing infrastructure to process the separated organic waste materials.  

This project explored the opportunity to process urban organic waste at wastewater treatment facilities that currently have spare capacity due to inbuilt long-term planning for population growth. These facilities could accept external organic waste streams in the short term. Filling this short term need could help:  

• defer capital expenditure on new organics processing facilities 
• enable a fast rollout of collection and processing of urban organic wastes 
• allow for a decrease in generation of food waste as per the National Food Waste Strategy, which is stipulating the need to halve food waste to landfill by 2030.   

This study used three existing Sydney Water wastewater treatment facilities (Malabar, St Marys and Riverstone) to illustrate and quantify the opportunities of diverting from landfill the urban organic wastes generated in the adjacent local government areas (Penrith, Blacktown, Randwick and Bayside). Anaerobic digestion technology at these wastewater treatment facilities could be used to process these wastes, generating renewable biogas as well as digestate rich in soil nutrients.  

This approach aligns with circular economy principles, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and brings together the siloed energy, water and waste sectors enabling knowledge sharing.

Read more here. 

Project timeframe

SDG targets addressed by this project

Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure:

9.4 - By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities.

Affordable and clean energy:

7.2 - By 2030, increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix

Sustainable cities and communities: 

11.6 - By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management

Responsible Consumption and Production 

12.4 - By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment

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