Millions of tonnes of Australia’s waste products from minerals processing and power stations can potentially be re-processed and used create better fertility and health products.
That is what Professor Richard Haynes of CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CARE) and the University of Queensland, will tell the Cleanup 09 conference in Adelaide today.
According to Haynes, new processes developed at CRC CARE can help to turn waste into environmentally friendly products.
“Stopping the dumping of wastes and using them in a positive way is the whole idea of it,” he told MINING DAILY.
“For example, Australia currently produces 13 million tonnes of flyash from coal-fired power generation and a similar quantity of ‘red mud’ from bauxite processing,” he said.
“By combining these resources in creative ways we can produce new products to boost fertility, overcome soil deficiencies, absorb toxic contaminants and beautify our urban landscapes.”
Haynes said that while Australia does re-use a significant amount of its industry wastes, more can definitely be done, both in terms of capacity and efficiency.
“There is actually quite a bit of recycling of waste materials, but the idea is to increase that and put some science into it,” he said.
“We need to make sure that we are doing it right and not causing any further contamination.”
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