Sydney is running out of places to put its rubbish, and fast. Within five years, the city is expected to hit landfill capacity, raising the prospect of skyrocketing waste disposal costs, more illegal dumping, and stockpiles of rubbish with nowhere to go.

As the clock ticks on what some describe as an unfolding waste catastrophe, a small facility in the Hawkesbury could become a test case for an entirely different approach.

A private company, ARC Ento Tech, plans to build what it claims will be Australia’s first commercial waste-to-resource plant at the Hawkesbury Waste Management Facility. If built, the plant would process around 20 tonnes of waste per day—most of the region’s garbage—and convert up to 85 percent of it into materials such as metallurgical coking coal, fertiliser, livestock feed and biofuel.

The proposal is being touted as a way to divert waste from landfill, but with little detail yet on long-term environmental impacts, cost to councils or how the technology will perform at scale, questions remain.

The urgency to find alternatives is real. Hawkesbury City Councillor Nathan Zamprogno says the region’s own tip could be effectively full by 2029 unless plans for an extension are made now. “Hawkesbury are fortunate to have the space for our own tip when many of our neighbouring Councils do not. It is of enormous concern to know that our own facility will be effectively full by 2029 unless we plan for its extension,” he said. “It would be expensive, inefficient and ethically problematic for us to just ship our waste elsewhere.”

Landfill space across Greater Sydney is rapidly filling. The pressure on local councils to find alternatives is growing, with many already trucking waste to regional areas or interstate. Others face rising costs and public backlash over new facilities or expanded landfill capacity.

The state’s recycling system is also under strain. Without new facilities or major reforms, industry experts warn that Sydney’s waste problem will only worsen.

Cr Zamprogno says redirection of waste into recycling streams is critical, but also warned that the NSW Government’s Food Organics and Garden Organics (FOGO) program—mandating a separate compostable waste bin for every household by 2030—is another example of cost-shifting onto local government. “FOGO is a good idea,” he said. “But the estimated costs to Hawkesbury ratepayers will be $5.6 million in the first year alone, and $4.2 million per year after that. If the State government thinks it’s so important that this scheme is introduced, they should pay for it. As it stands, what they are offering meets about 10% of the estimated costs.

This is not good enough.”