In December 2019, John Laing invested in the East Rockingham Resource Recovery Facility (ERRRF) in Perth, Australia. John Laing holds a 40% interest in the project to design, build, finance and operate the waste-to-energy plant. The facility addresses two major challenges facing Australia; delivering sustainable and affordable solutions for both electricity generation and waste management.

Australia disposes over 23 million tonnes of waste-to-landfill every year, with Western Australia having the highest waste generation rate per capital coupled with the lowest recovery rate. There are significant environmental costs to land, air and water associated with landfilling.

The ERRRF will be the second large-scale Energy from Waste facility in Australia. It will process up to 300,000 tonnes per annum of residual waste and 30,000 tonnes per annum of bio-solids from the Perth Metropolitan area. It will also produce around 70,000 tonnes per annum of bottom ash and 12,000 tonnes per annum of flue gas treatment residuals. The bottom ash will be further processed to recover metals and produce an aggregate product that can be used in road bases and other construction materials application. This will achieve a 96% diversion from landfill.

The ERRRF will export 28.9 MW of electricity to the grid of which over 50% of the power is deemed to be renewable. When operational, the facility will process around 300,000 tonnes of residual waste per year, the equivalent of taking 70,000 cars off the road. It is expected to create around 300 jobs during construction and 40-50 during operations.