Downer’s Reconomy business innovates to create best-practice solutions that maximise the value of our customers’ assets and support the sustainability of their communities.
We use leading practice to actively divert waste from landfill and process materials for suitable reuse in established markets. To us, it’s all about pulling products, not pushing waste.
We deliver solutions in landfill avoidance that recycle and repurpose domestic, commercial, road and construction waste materials into quality construction and organic products. We also operate in landfill management. These efforts help drive the circular economy through practical applications, while reducing the reliance upon increasingly scarce virgin materials.
Reconomy offers a detritus processing solution that turns a stream of mixed waste into valuable products and materials. We process, separate and clean street sweepings, gully waste, glass fines and non-destructive digging waste into individual components that can be readily reused. Detritus processing diverts sand, aggregates, organic matter and metals from landfill and provides high value replacement of virgin materials used in Downer’s asphalt products.
Our customers include asset owners, such as state and local government authorities and businesses operating in waste collection and management. We are committed to supporting our customers to minimise waste from their operations as the move towards a circular economy continues.
Our circular economy solutions are underpinned by industry-leading research, development and innovation, and our commitment to delivering long-term economic, social and environmental value for communities.
Reconomy has two decades of experience providing end-to-end solutions in landfill management and avoidance. Our team has expertise in the sustainable construction and management of landfill sites for domestic and hazardous waste.
Our capability spans all stages of landfill management, from construction to receival, placement and compaction of waste. Our services include leachate and stormwater management, litter, weed, vermin and erosion control, quarry operations and access road maintenance.
We set industry best practice with forward-thinking solutions that reuse materials removed during bulk earthworks at landfill sites. We crush excavated rock on-site for reuse in cell construction, drainage, pipe bedding and access road maintenance.
In addition to the environmental benefits of reusing the materials, our practices reduce heavy haulage movements and fuel consumption.
Reconomy is established as a thought leader in the innovative diversion of landfill, with a focus on finding suitable reuse for the engineered materials we process.
Reconomy has newly built detritus processing and construction and demolition washing facilities, which pull products from everyday waste streams.
Our state-of-the-art facilities are unlike many other recycling plants. We recycle engineered materials from domestic, commercial, road and construction waste into quality products and Downer has a use for these, including the manufacture of asphalt for road construction.
In addition to the environmental benefits of diverting waste from landfill, our processes deliver clear economic benefits via the extraction of valuable materials from a waste source, which then serve as inputs at the beginning of a new product’s life cycle.
Reconomy offers a detritus processing solution that turns a stream of mixed waste into valuable products and materials. We process, separate and clean waste streams such as street sweepings into individual components that can be readily reused. Downer also has a use for those materials, including asphalt for road construction.
Urban repurposing precinct
Downer has a 50 per cent shareholding in Victoria-based waste-to-resource business Repurpose It.
Repurpose It is established as an urban repurposing precinct in Epping, Melbourne, with a focus on resource recovery from construction, contaminated and organic waste.
Repurpose It operates Australia’s first construction and demolition washing facility, which creates a range of engineered and organic products to replace virgin materials.
The state-of-the-art facility is designed to process upwards of 500,000 tonnes of material per annum including excavation waste, such as rock, sand and soil, mixed waste, such as concrete, grit and rail ballast, non-destructive drilling and drainage waste, and dirty glass.
World-class mobile cold recycling
Reconomy sets industry best practice in repurposing with a range of foam bitumen solutions that maximise the value of road infrastructure assets.
We eliminate waste and reduce energy consumption through cold recycling of aggregates from reclaimed asphalt pavement, concrete and excavation waste. These engineered materials are regenerated with foam bitumen, eliminating waste and adding value at the end of their original life cycle.
Our foam bitumen solutions include Reconobase, containing 100 per cent recycled aggregates, and Foamix, containing a blend of aggregates to provide sustainable alternatives to asphalt and cementitious products.
These products offer exceptional durability in the pavement layers of road rehabilitation and new construction projects. This enables our customers to sustain the life of their road assets and meet the expectations of road users.
We work in partnership with Downer’s National Research and Development Laboratory to develop new products that divert waste from landfill. Our team is continually exploring new methods to repurpose materials into asphalt and spray seal products and other construction applications to:
- Reduce our reliance on natural resources
- Reduce carbon emissions
- Minimise waste that results from our processes.