Plan to crush concrete waste and glass at Bass Point raises concerns

The construction material company also wants permission to bring in 40,000 tonnes of used glass a year and process it at the long-running Bass Point quarry.

A "mobile crushing system" would be installed and used to process the waste concrete and glass.

The quarry is surrounded by sensitive lands on all sides - the Bass Point nature reserve, Killalea Regional Park, Bushrangers Bay Aquatic Reserve, the Killalea National Surfing Reserve, and the growing residential area of Shell Cove.

Both the Environment Protection Authority and Shellharbour City Council want more information from Hanson about this plan.

The EPA was concerned about water leaching out of the operations into the surrounding environment, air quality, and waste recovery reporting.

It said the application "does not address the potential for the proposal to generate leachate, detailed where leachate will drain to, or propose leachate management measures".

The city council said it needed better details on where the concrete and glass would be sourced from, the heights of the new crushing plant, and better details on air quality management.

Aggregate is a broad term for gravel-like construction material that can be made from various ingredients including crushed stone, concrete, sand, blast furnace slag, glass and other granular substances.

Some of the strongest aggregate material is basalt, which Hanson mines and crushes at the Bass Point quarry.

In a statement to the Mercury, Hanson said the proposal would benefit sustainability by increasing the use of recycled materials.

"The Bass Point Quarry has traditionally focused on extracting hard rock for processing on site for use in the production of aggregates and road base," it said.

"Under this proposal, leftover concrete and glass would be diverted from landfill and processed as recyclable materials at the quarry so they can be sustainably reused to produce recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) products.

"This will help reduce the demand for limited natural resources used in concrete and other aggregate products and increase the industry's use of recyclable materials.

"We are confident that the quarry will continue to operate as it has done so for 10 years under its NSW government approval, with oversight from the NSW Department of Planning and the Environment Protection Authority."

The Planning Department has told Hanson it must give the city council and the EPA the information they sought.

The Hanson spokesperson said there were no concerns about increased vehicle movements in and out of the site.

"There will be no increases in truck movements," they said.

"This is because quarry tipper trucks will be back loaded with these materials instead of running empty return trips to the quarry.

"Hanson believes this proposal is in accordance with the NSW Government's ambitions to grow the circular economy and will support the sustainability and efficiency of the quarry for generations to come.

"This is in line with our commitment to promoting sustainable building practices across the construction industry."

Hanson is owned by the Heidelberg Materials group, a multinational aggregate company named after the German city where it is based.