00:02Inside Adelaide Brighton Cement, tons of refuse-derived fuel, or RDF, which contains plastic, is burned every week.
00:10And a six-week trial, beginning on Tuesday, will throw more plastic into the mix.
00:15RDF's being used because it's of financial benefit to the company. That's the only reason it's being used.
00:21Tony Baisley has lived in Port Adelaide for more than 30 years,
00:25and while locals are used to cleaning dust off their cars and windows,
00:30he's more worried about what's going into his lungs.
00:32These days, I think standards have changed, people's expectations have changed,
00:37and that needs to be addressed.
00:40Adbride burns a maximum of 32 tonnes of RDF every hour.
00:44It'll now introduce an additional 10 tonnes an hour into the cement kiln.
00:49Up to 50% of that will be plastic.
00:51Port Adelaide Mayor Claire Bowen doesn't want the factory to go,
00:54but wants clearer data about how RDF affects air quality.
00:59Those companies are manufacturing in areas which are outside of residential areas.
01:03They can do that quite confidently.
01:05Here we have houses just as stones throw away from Adelaide Brighton cement.
01:09Adbride says it's diverted 2.7 million tonnes of waste from landfill,
01:14and now relies less on fossil fuels.
01:17Meanwhile, the State Environment Protection Authority says temperatures in the kiln
01:21will prevent plastic particles from escaping.
01:23It's expected to have complete completion of any of the RDF,
01:27including the plastics, paper, cardboard and timber,
01:30and we're not expected to see any emissions of plastics at all.
01:33The trial will end on September 1st,
01:35and the EPA will make a final decision within 90 days
01:38after looking at the air quality data.
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