THE ACT government is to build organic and materials recycling recycling facilities in Hume following the Boxing Day fire.

It says the costs associated with transporting the ACT’s recycling to processing facilities outside of the territory to facilities as far away as Victoria, is unsustainable.

The new material recycling facility will be located on the same site as the existing facility and utilise part of the adjoining block in the Hume Resource Recovery Estate. It will be designed to have an increased processing capacity of up to 115,000 tonnes per year

The new organic waste facility will have capacity to process more than 50,000 tonnes of compost a year.

The government says organic waste decomposition in landfill accounts for more than seven per cent of Canberra’s greenhouse gas emissions, and that it is important to divert it from landfill and have capacity to recycle it in the ACT at scale into compost.

The new recycling facility is expected to be operational by 2025 and the organic waste processing facility by 2026.