Overview of the facility
Transpacific is a leading waste treatment and recycling and management facility (company) operating in Australia. The company has been delivering safe, responsible waste management services for many years. The facility serves a range of businesses from small-sized to large multinational companies. The company has one of the largest and most specialized laboratories in Australia (Transpacific.com n.p).
The location of the Transpacific waste management facility and its users
Its liquid hazardous waste treatment and recycling department are located at Woree in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The company’s experience enables it to manage waste from customers in all the industries – ranging from workshops, restaurants to large mining firms. Regardless of the type of waste you produce, Transpacific provides customized waste management solutions (Transpacific.com n.p).
What systems are in place to maximize diversion from landfills?
The technical department of the company is highly backed up with high-tech purpose-built, environmentally compliant waste management tools and equipment. For example, vacuum loaders are used by its on-site waste management plant (Bowman, 1985).
The plant management and technical teams have a continuous improvement plan set in place to investigate new treatment and recycling procedures to further cause a reduction in waste sent to landfills. Through its continuous improvement plan, Transpacific ensures there is a reduction in the energy and waste usage as well as reduced negative effects on the environment (Daven & Klein, 2008).
They also have special processing equipment and technical staff that have extensive knowledge in liquid waste management.
Types of waste accepted, and how the facility manages them
The Transpacific treatment plant is highly specialized in the collection, treatment of various liquid wastes and other prescribed industrial waste. The company has a wide range of waste removal, management, and disposal arrangements that have been fully certified to manage liquid and hazardous waste materials (Hosetti, 2006).
The plant has a remarkable ability to handle a range of liquid and hazardous wastes. Here is a list of the wastes that the company specializes on:
- Acid waste
- Caustic waste
- Oily sludges,
- Grease trap waste
- Contaminated stormwater
- Septic waste
- Used cooking oil
- Solvents
- Waste oil
- Wastewater
- Triple interceptors
- Trade waste
The facility’s compliance with the provisions of any legislation
The facility has laboratories that have been accredited by the Australian National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA). This means that the facility can guarantee compliance with the statutory and environmental standards, as well as industry best practices (Hosetti, 2006). The plant operates its hazardous waste management activities in compliance with the provisions of externally certified Integrated Management Systems. The company also aims to meet the strict requirements of Australian quality standards and OHS (Rhyner, Schwartz, Wenger, & Kohrell, 1995).
Is the facility appropriate for the types of waste that are sent there for treatment/disposal?
In my view, the facility is fully equipped to handle all the liquid waste materials that are sent to its plant. This is because the company has the most up-to-date processing technologies with a capacity to handle all the physical and chemical properties contained in almost all liquid and hazardous wastes. The assessment report released recently regarding its liquid processing facility shows that the facility is capable of treating the waste before it can be reused or released to landfills safely.
Charges applied for the different wastes
The facility charges the fees on a per-kilolitre basis, and each waste category has different pricing as follows:
Low strength BOD – $1.6/kilolitre
High-strength BOD food – $2.8/ kilolitre
Automotive – $0.5
These charges are likely to go up if the customer does not maintain a pre-treatment.
Innovative steps are taken to minimize the impact of the operations on the environment and any neighbors
The company has developed comprehensive emergency spills and recovery services to provide emergency waste management services to customers. This emergency spills plan has been successful in minimizing the dangers posed by hazardous liquid wastes. With this creative plan, Transpacific has been certified to handle all types of quarantine wastes (Martin & Johnson, 1987; Dhamija, 2006).
Regulatory compliance
As a licensed trackable waste collector and recycler, Transpacific has systems to help customers track their waste on-site. This allows customers to reduce the risk of overstocking or overproduction of waste materials. As an EPA complaint company, Transpacific has set up a rapid response plan to help reduce the risk profile of its customers (Haggar, 2007).
Recommendations for future Improvements
While Transpacific has plans put in place to guarantee safety in handling liquid waste on-site, there are a few issues that the company can implement to strengthen its liquid waste management capacity (Daven & Klein, 2008).
First, the company should develop the process of designing and implementing a plan that complies with the Carbon Management Principles, such as avoidance, switching, reduction and offsetting (Environment Protection Authority, 2007; Vanatta, 2000). The change impact will be a reduced amount of greenhouse emissions from its landfills, on-site fuel and energy use.
The company can also produce and implement a comprehensive greenhouse gas emission reduction plan that complies with the Carbon Farming Initiative. This will reduce costs and increase savings that come with a carbon tax.
References
Bowman, AO 1985, “Hazardous Waste Management: An Emerging Policy Area within an Emerging Federalism”, Journal of Federalism, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 131-144.
Daven, JI., & Klein, RN 2008, Progress in waste management research, Nova Science Publishers, New York.
Dhamija, U 2006, Sustainable solid waste management: issues policies and structures, Academic Foundation, New Delhi.
Environment Protection Authority 2007, EPA Board Waste to Resources Subcommittee Report, EPA, South Australia, Web.
Haggar, SE 2007, Sustainable industrial design and waste management cradle-to-cradle for sustainable development, Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam.
Hosetti, BB 2006, Prospects and perspective of solid waste management, New Age International, New Delhi.
Martin, EJ, & Johnson, JH 1987. Hazardous waste management engineering. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.
Rhyner, CR, Schwartz, LJ., Wenger, RB., & Kohrell, MG 1995, Waste Management and Resource Recovery, CRC Press, New York.
Transpacific.com n.d., Web.
Vanatta, B 2000, Guide for Industrial Waste Management, DIANE Publishing, New York