TAMWORTH Regional Council has announced the new location for its organic recycling plant.
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Mayor Col Murray joined with the council's manager of waste operations, Dan Coe, on Wednesday to reveal the new site was on Gidley Appleby Road, about 20km from the CBD.
The council had remained tight-lipped about the site after councillors voted in favour of purchasing the a 117-hectare property to develop a food and green waste recycling plant in early April.
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The $15m project hit a hurdle a few years ago when a number of issues arose around the initially chosen site on the Duri-Wallamore Road near the airport.
At the time of the closed meeting vote for the purchase of the new property in Gidley, acting mayor Phil Betts was "as confident as one could be" the new site wouldn't hit any hurdles encountered in the initial plans.
The facility will process up to 35,000 tonnes of waste once it's built and potentially convert material including food and garden scraps, and waste from the city's abattoirs into a fertiliser product.
Mayor Col Murray emphasised the $15.2 million project would extend the life of the Forest Road landfill by diverting tonnes of food waste away from the site.
"It will be a major step forward to better manage our community's waste into the future," he said.
"It will mean we can divert food and organic waste from Tamworth's Forest Road landfill, helping to extend the life of that facility while achieving a more sustainable waste solution."
The council is planning to lodge a development application with the Joint Regional Planning Panel in August.
It's hoped the new facility would be up-and-running by the middle of 2021.
The facility will be designed to receive up to 35,000 tonnes of food and organic waste each year.
It will make use of enclosed tunnel composting, an innovative composting process which will provide a greater control on environmental aspects such as odour.
Cr Murray said the council has written to property owners and residents near the Gidley property to let them know about the proposed use of the site.
More information about the facility will be available once the development application goes on public exhibition.
If it all goes to plan, the waste recycling plant will be built at 284 Gidley-Appleby Road.