Maroochydore has unveiled plans to build Australia’s first high-tech, automated waste collection system. 
 
Wheelie bins will be banned.

Waste will be transported from commercial buildings and apartments at up to 70kmh through a 6.5km underground system of vacuum pipes.
 
Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson said the waste system would be installed in stages over the next decade, and would make Maroochydore one of the cleanest, greenest cities in the country.

“The rubbish revolution means that city workers and residents will never have to walk past rows of wheelie bins or be woken early by noisy garbage trucks in the Maroochydore City Centre," he said.

“Common aspects of waste collection such as odours and vermin will be avoided, and the costs of daily street cleaning will be reduced."

New urban centres in Stockholm, Seoul, Barcelona, London, Singapore and Beijing have already introduced the Swedish-designed Envac waste collection system.

“This technology has a track record of increasing recycling rates, so our natural environment will benefit too," said Jamieson.

“The waste system will cost $21 million, which will be fully recovered from occupants of the CBD over the life of the system.”

Each building in the new CBD will have at least three waste inlets, for organic, recyclable and general waste. Waste dropped into each inlet will be stored in a sealed compartment below ground until the vacuum pump is activated at the central waste facility, which will usually happen twice a day.

The vacuum system will then consecutively collect each type of waste, sucking the waste through a system of underground pipes to the central facility, where they will be stored in sealed compactors, ready for collection.

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