Green Distillation Technologies Chief Operating Officer Trevor Bayley gives an update on the progress of their planned Toowoomba tyre recycling plant in this interview for ABC Radio with David Chen.
The interview is reproduced here courtesy of ABC Radio Toowoomba.
Interview Transcript
Trevor: Wheels of approval take some time to turn, and there were some requests for information from some various authorities that we had to respond to and that involves the further engagement of consultants. And the respond amounted to about 683 pages I think, I remember, and that was submitted last week, which then kicks the clock over to the public notices. So we now expect some kind of response around April the 5th.
David: Are you disappointed that it’s taking this longer now that last year you’d planned to start work by mid this year?
Trevor: Yeah, disappointed is… yeah, we are disappointed, but we are also resigned to the fact that this is the way life is in the 21st century. It’s a bureaucratic nightmare but it’s necessary to protect the community from charlatans and other people.
David: With that public consultation period, what kind of feedback are you thinking that you’ll get from the community at what you’re planning?
Trevor: Well our experience in Toowoomba has been all positive so we are not expecting anything of a negative nature. And given the location of the site, we don’t think we’re interfering with anybody’s lifestyle of lifestyle expectations. So we would imagine the responses will either be minor or insignificant.
David: And you’ve had a few international guests or people interested in what you’re doing from overseas. How will this application, now that it’s moving forward, affect your dealings with other people overseas who are interested in your technology?
Trevor: Well, you know we are an Australian start-up company, an Australian world’s first technology, that’s recognised everywhere except Australia as being you know, state-of-the-art and progressive.
The obvious question that people from overseas ask is: If it’s that good how come the Australians don’t recognise it? This relationship with the Queensland State government and with Toowoomba region, in particular, is very significant in that regard because both parties have been incredibly supportive.
Legislation is legislation and we can’t argue with that. So it’s in place for a reason, and we have to comply with those terms and conditions. Frustrating, disappointing — all those things, but at the end of the day, the value of the recognition sends all that into insignificance.
David: Once this public consultation period is over, what do you hope will happen with the approval process for your applications then?
Trevor: We anticipate that the next step is that we will get an approval to develop — it’s a development approval authority — and we anticipate that their next step will be then to take the site under the site works and what have you and what needs doing there, and get our construction certificate or approval or permission or whatever it’s called in Queensland to start building. So that’s our planned approach, we would think that within a month of the approvals, we would have, the site would be pre-marked, laid-out, and ready to start rocking and rolling.
David: And based on the current timelines that you have at the moment, when do you think that project will be finished and ready to start operations?
Trevor: Well, because it’s a progressive development — a modular plant — and we build modules as they are available. We would anticipate that the module would be operational within 9 months of getting started. And the complete plant will be a hundred percent operational within 14 months of starting. So if we start in April, fourteen months would take us to June 2020, I guess.
