Lack of infrastructure in the resource recovery sector is a bugbear for many, whether it is councils, associations or the public at large – trying to make sure Australia’s needs are met is becoming a challenge. Especially when it comes to trying to meet government-mandated recovery targets. Regional Australia has long relied on landfills to meet their waste disposal needs. However, the public attitude towards dumping waste in landfills has changed for the worse, so councils are learning that recovery of these items can lead to better outcomes in many ways. It means less waste landfilled, and therefore less green-house gases created, as well as finding a revenue stream for the reprocessed products. Enter OREZ.
OREZ is a company that is starting to make a name for itself in the resource recovery sector as a one-stop shop for designing and constructing advanced organic processing and bio energy facilities. It can design and build facilities to meet the needs of most councils, especially those in regional Australia.
Sean Galdermans is the general manager of OREZ. The company has recently won a contract to design and build an advanced organics recycling facility for the Tamworth Regional Council, which is based in northern New South Wales.
All going to plan, the build will start in Q3 of 2025 and is set to be completed by Q1 2027. The council had already put the facility up for tender twice but failed to find a solution in the market that met its stakeholder requirements. Then along came OREZ.
“I feel we were successful in winning the tender because we proved to Council very early on that our team has all the relevant technical knowledge in-house,” said Galdermans. “This limited the need for a number of consulting firms, combined with an excellent and flexible understanding of commercial strategies to deliver these types of projects. The process started early on with a couple of concepts – developed into a preliminary design – where we were setting the boundaries of the project. We worked hand-in-hand with the council to make sure we meet all the interim milestones. While the concept was being developed, the commercial teams very quickly combed through the contract, and mutual ground was found within a couple of months. We then moved into that next phase of the design.”
Lance Jeffrey is OREZ’s delivery manager. He came onboard about 12 months ago to add gravitas to the pitch due to his background as a senior project manager that has helped build a variety of facilities in different industries. He said OREZ has shifted its business model to be more all-encompassing.
“Up until recently, industrial composting facilities and anaerobic digesters have typically been delivered through design processes – typically bid-build type processes – where a contractor builds a facility that’s been designed by someone else,” said Jeffrey. “In other words, the guts of the facility just forms part of the bigger picture, and it just becomes another commodity of build.
“OREZ’s evolution naturally positions us to take on the head contract role, either as EPC (Engineering/Procurement/Construction) or EPCm (Engineering/Procurement/Construction management), by leveraging our engineering and process expertise.”
Galdermans technical sales background merged with Jeffrey’s experience building such facilities – and their joint abilities complemented by new CEO Max Bergomi’s expertise in bringing it all together with his commercial acumen – means OREZ is taking the company to the next level. All three are excited about the future for the company as it increases its offering to the market. And what will the Tamworth facility offer in term of capacity?
Currently, most of the industrial feedstock streams go to landfill. This new facility will not only be capable of processing around 35,000 tonnes of organics a year but will have the capacity to do more if need-be. Galdermans said the Council’s intention is to have future growth capacity of up to 50,000 tonnes per annum. The facility’s modular design means there is enough room to leave space after the original facility is commissioned to retrofit any expansion.
And the facility itself? What is some of the key features? Galdermans said it is the first facility of its type for Australian councils that will incorporate wet anaerobic digestion with in-vessel composting. There’s also going to be two distinct receival areas in the facility, he said.
“One for the more industrial liquid/sludgy types of feedstocks that go through a digestion process,” he said. “This will help generate clean electricity on site, which will provide the power we need for the composting facility. The surplus will then be fed into the grid.”
He said that the anaerobic digestion and the composting tunnels go hand-in-hand from a process perspective. This is because one generates a lot of water while the other one needs a lot of water. Also, the digestate, a by-product of the anaerobic digestion process, is a feedstock that is mixed in with the kerbside collected organics and is composted through the In-Vessel Composting system and turned into compost.
“In Tamworth, being regional, they do struggle with water. It’s quite dry up there,” he said. “To have that kind of process that is balanced and compliments one and another, while producing energy from an organic feed stock – that is now diverted out of landfill – means there’s many wins.”
The plant is also designed to process some of the difficult feedstocks that will be coming through the facility.
“There are different types of feedstocks that are not as easily composted in the traditional way and will now be running through the renewable energy plant,” said Jeffrey. “Council is happy about providing that for its ratepayers. There are businesses in the region that need to get rid of difficult wastes – the category three waste – that are currently going straight to landfill.”
And while sustainability was a key ingredient, Galdermans said it wasn’t the only consideration that council looked at when the site was being designed. It also had to fit the bill commercially.
“What was always very clear is that it has to make sense for their residents whilst Council is trying to transition to FOGO and meet the state targets,” he said.
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Once the facility is built, it will be owned and operated entirely by the council. However, Galdermans highlights there is an intent from both parties for OREZ to stay involved in supporting Council’s ongoing operations.
“As the experts, we can make sure the process keeps running in the most optimal way, while they handle daily operations themselves,” he said. “It’s a process support package where we make sure that the asset is running as efficiently as possible.
“Many times, we’ve delivered a piece of infrastructure to find that within two to five years the asset is running at 60 per cent of its original design and commissioning capacities due to deteriorating maintenance and process knowledge. We are one of the few in the industry that have that knowledge to make sure that the project keeps running at its best. We’re not just an infrastructure provider.”
There will be some residual waste due to the nature of the FOGO coming in having some contamination, which means there will still be some marginal landfill. However, nowhere near as much that will have been the case before the facility has been built.
“The aim of the game is trying to keep your feed stock as clean as you can, so your end products are clean too,” said Galdermans. “Most of the product will be turned into compost and mulch to be reused or resold by the council.”
CEO Bergomi said that this project is a great showcase and case study for what OREZ can bring to the market.
“One of the exciting things for us is this project represents one of the best end-to-end examples of organic recycling and how it can be made feasible,” he said. “It involves In-Vessel Composting, anaerobic digestion, and reusing power generated from biogas, reducing operating costs, with excess energy available for sale on the grid. I think there’s probably no other project in Australia that has every single component as a part of it.
“We are keen to make this project a showcase for other councils to follow. We believe this project can show other regional councils that recycling is feasible by investing in advanced organic processing facilities.
“These commercially viable facilities do not necessarily require subsidies and produce valuable resources, significantly reducing landfill waste. The renewable electricity generated, and the high-quality organic matter produced, can be used for soil enrichment, can benefit communities and the environment across Australia.”