New $8.55m landfill cell completed at City of Darwin waste facility

A new state-of-the-art landfill cell has been completed at the City of Darwin’s Shoal Bay Waste Management Facility

A NEW state-of-the-art landfill cell has been completed at the City of Darwin’s Shoal Bay Waste Management Facility.

The $8.55 million landfill cell is a fully lined, industry leading catchment for leachate, which is contaminated water that drains from decomposed rubbish.

Veolia Environmental Services Northern Territory manager Nick Walker said there was a high level of engineering that went into the construction of a landfill cell.

“It has to be constructed in an environmentally sound way, providing a good stable place for the waste to go into,” Mr Walker said.

The new cell is lined with four layers of low permeability materials allowing leachate to be collected and drained from the topside of the liner.

A new landfill cell and completion of a solar system installation at City of Darwin’s Shoal Bay Waste Management Facility has been announced by Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis. Picture: Che Chorley

The four layers provide a protective barrier between the waste and underlying ground layers and surrounding environment.

The new landfill cell covers 30,000sq m and a varying depth of 6m.

City of Darwin Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis said everyone needed to rethink how waste could be diverted.

“It is absolutely necessary for us to reduce waste that goes into landfill so the lifespan of this new landfill cell can be extended,” Mr Vatskalis said.

“This will help reduce our effects on climate change and the environment.”

Darwin company DTA Contractors delivered the design, constructing the project over 14

months.

DTA Contractors managing director David Divilly said the project had been their biggest yet

“It was a really good experience working with the City of Darwin, everyone was one team and were working towards the one goal,” Mr Divilly said.

A new landfill cell and completion of a solar system installation at City of Darwin’s. Shoal Bay Waste Management Facility has been announced by Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis. He is pictured here with Veolia, NT Manager, Nick Walker. Picture: Che Chorley

The Shoal Bay Waste Management Facility is also running on solar power after 260 solar panels were installed on the roof of the Recycling and Resource Recovery Centre,

providing a savings of about $34,000 per year.

Mr Vatskalis said the solar installation was a fantastic initiative.

“It will also reduce our operating costs significantly and help us to achieve the NTG target of 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030,” he said.