Hanson’s Wollert Landfill is an example of how landfill can play a positive role and be an agent for change. Project Manager Chris Lynch outlines plans to transform the site into a circular economy powerhouse.
In the northern suburbs of Melbourne, the Wollert Quarry and Renewable Energy Landfill has quietly gone about providing a safe end of life for waste generated across Melbourne and Victoria.
Now owner operators Hanson are set to transform the site into a circular economy powerhouse. The company is dedicating more than 20 hectares of its current site for advanced resource recovery and material reuse.
Chris Lynch, Project Manager, says the Wollert Resource Park will transform the waste streams already received, such as organics, metals, and soils, and transform them into valuable products for the circular economy in Melbourne and Victoria.
“We envisage the landfill will be operating for more than 50 years and the quarry at least another 10,” Chris says. “We want to do something positive with the space left by quarrying, something that will benefit the whole community.
“The goal is for the Resource Park to be operating forever. For as long as there’s a waste management need in Melbourne.”
The Wollert site currently has a quarrying operation, a landfill, and a biogas power facility. The quarry supplies basalt products for a variety of uses including construction of roads and houses and concrete for infrastructure projects. It’s been operating since the late 1970s and has increased output, selling about 2.5 million tonnes of material in 2022.
The landfill started operating in 2000 and accepts thousands of tonnes of waste each year including municipal, commercial and industrial, and construction and demolition wastes.
The landfill cells are in previously quarried parts of the site and are designed to help contain leachate and help capture and recover landfill gas that is used by the onsite biogas power generation facility. This facility currently produces 7.7 megawatts of renewable energy.
Chris says locating the Resource Park on the same site as the landfill and quarrying operation will take advantage of the existing waste streams, diverting recyclable materials from landfill while creating products that provide increased circularity for the construction materials business.
He says there’s potential for co-located repair cafes and maker space for some of the difficult to recycle materials, such as textiles, that don’t currently have a home.
“The potential at Wollert is huge,” Chris says. “Globally, the waste landscape is changing. Carbon reduction is essential. The legislative framework, particularly in Victoria and federally with waste export bans, has provided the right environment to invest into the circular economy.
“Prolonging the life of existing assets is a big part of this. What can we do to repurpose and recirculate more material that’s currently in the market rather than relying on virgin material?
“The Resource Park offers a unique opportunity due to its proximity to waste-generating markets and a significant landholding being dedicated to these operations.”
The Resource Park will be delivered in two precincts, a waste-to-energy precinct and a general resource recovery precinct. Both will share some infrastructure including a recently installed weighbridge, the onsite leachate treatment plant and close access to offtakes for residual and process products.
Chris says there’s a huge volume of material that can be recovered and recycled that currently has nowhere to go. Hanson is well positioned to take on those materials. Stage one of the Resource Park has the capacity to produce more than one million tonnes of recycled material.
He says the company is looking at the waste-to-energy precinct to provide more behind the meter applications. The power generated could be used behind the meter for crushing and screening operations to fully capture all of the products coming through, and then to send them back out as green, circular economy construction materials.
Sustainability is part of the ethos at Hanson. In 2016, the company converted a capped portion of the landfill site into a solar farm, installing more than 380 solar panels that can generate up to 100 kilowatts per annum.
It has also established native habitat and improved biodiversity outcomes for used landfill cells. In 2010, with approval from the Environment Protection Authority, the company trialled a phytocap that uses deep beds of locally sourced soils, planted with suitable indigenous grasses, bushes and trees.
The soil layer acts as a sponge for rainfall in winter. The plants transpire the moisture back into the atmosphere in summer months, preventing rainfall from penetrating the waste below and the production of leachate.
More than 50,000 native plants have been planted every year and the rehabilitated areas are now home to many local animals, including kangaroos and wedge tailed eagles.
Chris says the Resource Park has been on Hanson’s agenda for some time and is now gaining momentum. The company is currently going through regulatory approval processes to allow for recycling activities on site and is hoping to partner with businesses aligned with the company’s vision by early 2024.
Chris was brought in to steer the project in 2022 and has enjoyed engaging with the local community to drive the vision forward. Part of that has been the formation of a local stakeholder group that meets regularly.
He says it’s important the local community shares the company’s vision and feels empowered to provide input. It’s a process that will continue throughout the site’s lifetime.
“There’s a great opportunity here as we transform the site into a circular economy powerhouse,” Chris says.
“A compliant operation with shared infrastructure that will alleviate the need for a proliferation of small-scale waste management assets across Melbourne is better for the community, but we can’t operate in isolation.
“We’re future proofing this asset so we can continue to play a positive role in the waste management framework in Victoria and be an agent for change.”
For more information, visit: www.hanson.com.au
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