Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I had the pleasure of touring the Loganholme Wastewater Treatment Plant last week with a delegation from the Netherlands who were looking at waste and recycling. Logan Water's biosolids gasification plant was funded both by the Logan City Council and through a grant of $6.2 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency when the coalition were last in government. I had the pleasure of opening that facility several years ago, so it was wonderful to come back and check out the progress since the opening. The team from Logan Water and Logan City Council shared with us that the plant has been running extraordinarily well and has reduced an estimated 4,800 tonnes of carbon emissions every year, taking that solid waste and turning it into biochar, which is a highly sought-after slow-release fertiliser used in the agriculture sector. Off to the side at the biochar facility they had a year's worth of production stockpiled, which they told us had recently been sold. It was great to be able to check it out.

As I said, there was a team from the Netherlands there to look at the waste recovery processes at the wastewater treatment centre. I thank DutchPowerGroup, Blue Phoenix Group, Adverio Waste Systems and others for their visit to Logan, and I thank the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their support of the program.