Oct 2010 What's Happening In My Back Yard Seminar - Cadbury and Nyrstar - Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand

Oct 2010 What's Happening In My Back Yard Seminar - Cadbury and Nyrstar

Cadbury

Clinton Luckock, Environmental Specialist, Cadbury, opened the evening with an in-depth presentation on Cadbury’s impressive KPI reporting system. Various parameters are tracked around waste generation, recycling, waste water volumes and quality, water use and greenhouse gases. Much of these data are presented graphically on the Environment Information Notice Board, located deliberately, sneakily and cleverly on the way to the canteen! Cadbury is making ongoing improvements to the equipment on site to reduce its environmental impact. Cadbury has set a target of a 50% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020 (compared with 2006) and has set an interim target of 15%.

Cadbury has had an ongoing program to upgrade equipment and machinery resulting in lower energy use and hence greenhouse gas emissions. Cadbury is in the process of converting the coal fired boiler to natural gas. This is expected to reduce CO2 equivalents by 7,900 Tonnes per annum. This project will avoid the need for water to cool the ash and hence water use will be cut by 360 kilolitres per annum.

Another project will involve reprogramming the finished product conveyors to operate only on demand. This should reduce energy by 188 MWh per year.

Nyrstar

Todd Milne, Nyrstar, provided an overview of the significant historical contamination of soil and groundwater on and off the site. Historically stockpiles of material were kept out in the open so any wind would spread this material around the area. In 2009 Nyrstar installed a series of horizontal finger bores to drain the ground water and treat it at the onsite treatment plant. This has resulted in a four metre drop in the water table height and around 50 tonnes of zinc being recovered.

In collaboration with the Glenorchy City Council, a 22ML retention basin will be installed under the Moonah Primary School to collect stormwater. This water will be fed to Nyrstar and will replace potable water. Nyrstar proposes to treat the water in a distillation column fed with low pressure steam. This project will result in a significant reduction in the potable water used at the site.

Matthew Meere, Nyrstar, outlined the air quality issues at the site. An electrostatic precipitator on the foreshore sulfur dioxide scrubber was installed recently to reduce sulfur emissions. In addition, continuous particulate monitoring on baghouses has been installed. There is a network of high volume and TEOM dust samplers on and off site to monitor dust concentrations. Also Nyrstar has an active dust management plan in place to reduce dust emissions from the site.