Minimising waste through circular economy

Challenge

There's too many spoils at Yarra Valley Water after our team conducted emergency works

Solution

In 4 weeks, the team collaborated with both Yarra Valley Water and Earth Sure to come up with a method that will allow more than 600 tonnes of spoil to be reused in other projects across YVW and beyond.

Impact

As a result of the sucess and the the positive response, the team has completed 2 stages of soil processing, and is working with authorirites to develop a proposal for using the materials back in the field, in order to acheive a full circular economy recylcing approach.

When it comes to sustainability, working closely with our clients and partners is part of achieving great outcomes.

Our water team, in collaboration with our client Yarra Valley Water and the Earthsure soil treatment facility, is undertaking a long-term pilot project to create a sustainable process for managing spoil from emergency works across our Yarra Valley Water contract.

The pilot has been recognised by the Australian Water Association as a finalist for Organisational Excellence at the Victorian Water Awards for 2022.

Finding ways to minimise waste and reuse material

Our contract with Yarra Valley Water (YVW) generates spoil, resulting from Ventia and YVW's emergency works program carried out across the YVW network. Spoil is the soil and other material that is recovered when digging up ground to fix a pipe or manage an issue across the network.

Operational practices for managing spoil have traditionally focused on landfill solutions, however both Ventia and YVW are driven to support a circular economy and pursue innovations and new approaches to manage their footprint and minimise waste.

For the past few years, the Ventia and YVW teams have been developing a circular economy initiative with the aim of achieving just that.

^{Spoil is treated using a thermal desorption process to safely remove contaminants at the EarthSure soil processing facility in Melbourne.}

Understanding what we have

The first phase of this project has been to develop an understanding of the spoil material.

Leveraging the EarthSure soil processing facility, a Melbourne-based facility co-operated by Ventia as part of a joint venture, with Veolia, the soil is treated using a thermal desorption process to safely remove contaminants. The aim of this process is twofold.

Firstly, it provides the team with an understanding of what makes up the soil and allows items such as concrete and rock to be removed.

Secondly it enables the treated spoil to potentially be reclassified as material suitable for a range of uses both across the YVW contract and beyond.

^{The team has completed two stages of soil processing, each using more than 600 tonnes of spoil across a four-week period.}

Future use - a circular economy

The team has completed two stages of soil processing, each using more than 600 tonnes of spoil across a four-week period in order to evaluate the potential recovery fraction of the material. Ventia also engaged a special technical team to further assess the material and its suitability for reuse.

The trials have shown that more than 99.9% of the material has the potential for reuse. The team is now working on replicating their results and working with relevant authorities on approvals in order to develop a proposal for using the materials back in the field, offering a full recycling approach.

Ventia's Project Director on the Yarra Valley Water contract Kirsty Bortolin explained: "A project like this requires a lot of collaboration, a lot of planning and a real determination to make a difference.'

The overall objective is to be able to reuse the recovered material back into the YVW system rather using virgin materials for backfill.

"I'm really proud of what the team has developed to date and can't wait to see where this goes in the future," she said.

^{The pilot has been recognised by the Australian Water Association as a finalist for Organisational Excellence at the Victorian Water Awards for 2022.}