July 14th, 2024A first in geosynthetic cell capping at Ballarat landfill

The City of Ballarat’s first landfill cell capping project using geosynthetic materials has been underway on more than two hectares of land at the Ballarat Regional Landfill in recent days.

Fully funded by the City of Ballarat, the large-scale $2.6 million project will cap cells (large spaces dug and lined at a landfill where waste is layered and compacted) in line with Environment Protection Authority (EPA) requirements.

The work is weather dependent and is being carried out in two stages. The first stage began in January and was recently completed. The second stage of works will take place next summer and is scheduled to be completed by June 2025.

City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Des Hudson said this best-practice environmental treatment will take place as part of the capping of all our municipality’s landfill cells going forward.

“The City of Ballarat is committed to the best processes of containment and ongoing management of our waste,” he said.

“This is one of our largest landfill capping projects ever undertaken and these cells fill very quickly. We need to work together to recycle and reduce as much of our waste going to landfill as possible.”

Everything residents throw in their household waste bin is disposed of at the Ballarat Regional Landfill at Smythesdale.

More than 23,000 tonnes of waste from 50,000 homes were sent to the landfill in the 2022/23 financial year. The landfill also takes commercial and industrial waste.