Sixty five scientists and waste utilisation experts will leave Sydney this week on an effluent tour of Australia.

They will be looking into a range of wastes including sewage sludge, domestic effluent, pulpmill and dairy shed effluent, all with an eye to their productive use.

"Land utilisation of waste is coming into increasing use," said one of the organisers Phil Polglase, of CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products. "The aim of the tour is to look at the best ways of using both liquid and solid wastes.

"Participants in the effluent tour come from State and Local Government, forestry and paper companies and research organisations in seven countries," he said.

Highlights of the tour will include:

• use of sludge as a fertilizer on forests near Moss Vale;
• CSIRO's Flushing Meadows research site at Wagga Wagga where sewage effluent is used to grow trees;
• Wagga's effluent processing plants;
• Australian Newsprint Mills' pine plantations near Albury, irrigated with saline effluent from the nearby paper mill;
• effluent-irrigated tree plantations and pastures in the Shepparton area; and
• Werribee, Australia's oldest sewage treatment plant, now recognised as an internationally significant wetland bird habitat.

Exchanging new research results will be the highlight of a Conference in Canberra on Monday and Tuesday (30/9, 1/10). During the tour participants will meet waste management authorities, and be available to local media.

The Conference and tour have been organised under the auspices of the New Zealand Land Treatment Collective, which brings together researchers and managers in the waste management industry.

For more information contact Dr Philip Polglase tel: 019 32 2111 or Mr Mick Crowe tel: 06 281 8357 (bus.), 06-2319447 (a.h.).