THE limitation on space in some landfill sites has reached acute proportions, according to the Director of Murdoch’s new Centre for Organic Waste Management, Professor Arthur McComb.

To help combat this, Murdoch University, in collaboration with the Departments of Commerce and Trade and Environmental Protection, has opened a new Centre of Excellence in Waste Management.

Other partners in the new centre, which was opened last month by Deputy Premier, the Hon Hendy Cowan MLA, include Agriculture WA and the Western Australian Municipal Association.

“The management of organic waste is a major challenge for environmental protection,” said Professor McComb.

“The objective of the new centre is to consolidate broad existing expertise in this field and develop environmentally-sustainable solutions for managing organic waste by maximising resource recovery.”

He said this would be achieved through technological development, research, training, engineering and economic evaluations of recovery solutions and their social implications.

Murdoch Vice Chancellor Steven Schwartz said Murdoch was proud to be associated with the new centre, not only because of its scientific merit but also because it represented what could be achieved when partners worked together.

“The creation of this centre emphasises a growing awareness of the importance of research on sustainable development in Australia,” said Professor Schwartz.

“The importance of sustainable development research was emphasised recently in a report by Australia’s Chief Scientist Robin Batterham (on Australia’s research capability) and in the recent white paper, which covers research in Australian universities.

“The new centre will join several other major research centres already successfully established at Murdoch, including the Environmental Technology Centre, the WA State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre (both are Centres of Excellence), and the AJ Parker Cooperative Research Centre for Hydrometallurgy.”