Smelly bins will be a thing of the past at a new town in Australia with the installation of the country’s first automated underground waste-sucking system.
It would spark a “rubbish revolution”, said the mayor of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast municipality.
Envac, which invented the suction-based collection system in the 1960s, will handle the waste of over 2,000 apartments and businesses at the Maroochydore development scheme, which was declared a Priority Development Area by the Queensland state government in July 2013.
Replacing traditional rubbish bins will be Envac’s “waste inlets”, which connect to an underground pipe network that sucks waste into a central collection station.
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According to Envac, the system uses fans that create a partial vacuum in the pipe network which can suck waste into the central station at 70km/h.
The system will collect three waste streams including general, organic and recyclable waste.
According to Envac, Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson declared that the waste system will be installed in stages over the coming decade, and will make the 53-hectare Maroochydore City Centre one of the cleanest and greenest cities in the country.
How the system works (Envac)
“The rubbish revolution means that city workers and residents will never have to walk past rows of wheelie bins or be woken early by noisy garbage trucks in the Maroochydore City Centre,” the mayor said.
“Common aspects of waste collection such as odours and vermin will be avoided,” he added, “and the costs of daily street cleaning will be reduced. As well as making our city heart more attractive, this technology has a track record of increasing recycling rates, so our natural environment will benefit too.”
Read the rest of the article at GCR
