What is the RRRP?
The RRRP will be a best practice waste management facility designed to cater for the region’s waste management needs for the next 70 years and beyond. It will include four key components:
Community Recycling Centre (CRC)
The CRC will offer the community a full range of reuse and recycle services to maximise the diversion of materials from landfill. At the front of the site, residents will have easy access to:
There will also be a Education Centre at which school groups can learn about Recycling and Waste Avoidance.
The Shire has allowed expansion room for a Container Deposit Facility to support the State Government’s Containers for Change scheme. There is also space for a Materials Recovery Facility that could support the community’s ‘yellow lid’ recycling bin program, along with other recyclable materials.
The CRC will be designed and constructed to best practice standard and relevant approval requirements to ensure all potential environmental and social impacts are controlled to appropriate standards.
To ensure activities at the CRC and adjacent operations are suitably screened from the surrounding roads, the Shire has include a 90m vegetation buffer.
Community Recycling Centre - Overview
Reuse Shop and Education Centre
Liquid Waste Facility
There will be a best practice, fully lined liquid waste facility to treat domestic and commercial liquid waste.
Common liquid wastes to be accepted are Septages (Septic tank pumpouts) and grease as well as truck washes and coolant.
Supporting Site Infrastructure
The CRC has been designed to handle greater usage with a full suite of support infrastructure:
Class III Landfill
The other main component of the RRRP is the landfill. Historically, and as is the case with the Shire’s Buckleys Road site, landfills were simply a hole in the ground. However, best practice landfill facilities are nothing like this. They are modern, fully engineered facilities to minimise environmental and social impacts.
A Class III Landfill has been designed based on the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Victoria’s best practice landfill guidelines, which cover the siting, design, operation and rehabilitation of landfills. There is no current Western Australian standard, and the Victorian guide is known to be the most stringent in Australia and consistent with international standards.
The new facility will use the most up-to-date lining and design principles to comply with stringent approval requirements.
The focus of a Class III Landfill is on environmental engineering controls that increase environmental and safety performance across the whole of life of the facility. These include:
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Basal lining system to protect soils and groundwater below the landfill
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Leachate collection and management to proactively collect and extract out any liquid (referred to as leachate) from the bottom of each cell
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Landfill gas management to safely deal with any gases that form as the waste breaks down
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Landfill capping system to seal each cell as it reaches its end of life
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Surface water management to divert water away from the landfill
A staged approach will also be adopted for the landfill cells, where the construction, filling and capping is phased to minimise the exposure of waste to the environment.
Illustration of management of cells (Source: Talis Consultants.)
Basal Lining System
The basal lining system used in landfill is a low permeable barrier placed at the bottom of each landfill cell. It consists of multiple layers to protect the underlying soils and groundwater, which can be seen in the cross-section below:
Source: Talis Consultants.
Capping
Once the landfill cells have reached their final fill heights of 20m above ground level, the Shire will apply a capping system. This will include a plastic or geosynthetic liner, with approximately 1.2m of restoration soils graded to relevant slopes to ensure it is free draining. A geonet will also be installed. This will ensure the waste mass is fully encapsulated and can shed clean stormwater, which in turn will minimise leachate generation. The restoration soils will then be revegetated using local flora species.
Source: Talis Consultants.