EarthSure, a joint venture between Veolia, a global leader in resource management, and Ventia, a leading provider of contaminated land remediation services focused on the sustainable processing of contaminated soil and hazardous wastes has been a successful grant recipient in the second round of the Circular Economy Infrastructure Fund - Hazardous Waste Stream from the Victorian Government through Sustainability Victoria.
The grant will be used towards relocating Ventia's patented soil washing technology to Melbourne.
The soil washing plant will provide a cost effective and sustainable solution, particularly for beneficial reuse of Category C soils in infrastructure projects and enhance existing site capacity to remediate Category A and B contaminated soils using state-of-the-art thermal desorption technology.
Ventia's General Manager Environment Services, Adam Fletcher, said Ventia is invested in the implementation of sustainable approaches to waste management and resources recovery.
Innovative technologies like our soil washing plant maximise resource recovery from waste streams. Aggregate, sand and road base are all products in high demand - and treated product can be reused in infrastructure and building projects.
"The soil washing plant is expected to divert ~160,000 tonnes of Category C soils from landfill per annum, generating valuable construction materials, saving virgin source material from quarrying. Greater than 98% of the soils will be beneficially reused as we see high demand because of the State Government's extensive infrastructure program," he said.
The Circular Economy Infrastructure Fund - Hazardous Waste Stream grant will be used towards relocating Ventia's patented soil washing technology to Melbourne.
The soil washing plant will provide 25 jobs during relocation activities.
Upon completion, the plant will operate 24-hours a day providing 15 ongoing operations roles, with 20 indirect roles for maintenance, support and feedstock and product transportation.
The project is supported by the Circular Economy Infrastructure Fund - Hazardous Waste Stream. The Fund is delivered by Sustainability Victoria under the Victorian Government's circular economy plan, Recycling Victoria: a new economy.
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Greater than 98% of the soils will be beneficially reused as a result of the soil washing process.
EarthSure and further background
The EarthSure facility was established in 2018 on a portion of the Veolia Taylors Road landfill site, which has historically operated as Victoria's only licenced Category B landfill. The facility was built on a capped former landfill cells.
The existing facility offers thermal treatment of soils contaminated with organic compounds and a stabilisation of soils contaminated with heavy metals. The thermal desorption process and the stabilisation processes are only economically viable for Category A and B soils, meaning that Category C soils are sent to landfill.
The soil washing plant will deliver the highest possible waste hierarchy outcome (reuse) for some 25-30% of the state's annually generated contaminated soils. It will also deliver significant savings in demand for virgin (quarried) resources.
Ventia's patented soil washing technology was developed to treat PFAS impacted soils at RAAF Base Edinburgh.
The plant was used to treat PFAS impacted soils but can be configured to treat soils that contain both physical (oil/fuel, debris) and chemical (organic and inorganics such as hydrocarbons, PAHs, and heavy metals) contaminants. The process produces a series of clean reusable products (sands, gravels, aggregates) and a small waste stream (< 0.6% of soil treated), which can be treated with the existing thermal desorption process at the EarthSure facility.
See more about the soil washing process in the video below.