Five Subi Ovals of Rubbish

Just the other day McBean (our nearly 6-year-old) asked “So where does the rubbish go after the truck takes it away?” Well, I can now answer him with some authority.

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to have a tour of the Tamala Park Waste Disposal Centre, which is a fascinating site comprised of landfill and a recycling facility. My thanks go to Peg Davies, the MRC’s Waste Education Officer, who was a very passionate, knowledgeable and friendly tour guide.

The Mindarie Regional Council Waste Management Authority owns and operates Tamala Park on behalf of the Cities of Joondalup, Perth, Stirling and Wanneroo, and the Towns of Cambridge, Victoria Park and Vincent. That means they receive and dispose of the waste of more than a half a million people.

So after the big truck collects the rubbish out of your green bin (or the builder’s skip, or the restaurant’s bin, or the park bins, and so on) it is ultimately taken to Tamala Park if you are in one of those seven councils.

Landfill Facts

  • Last year the Tamala Park landfill received 370,000 tonnes of municipal waste.
  • The site is developed in two stages – the first stage (or hole) started filling in 1991 and is full.
  • The second stage, which is roughly 10 hectares, is expected to be full by 2020 (that’s only 10 years from now!)
  • To date, some 4 million tonnes of waste has been received by the site.
  • The second stage holes are lined with the latest technology to help prevent leachate (the liquid runoff from decomposing rubbish) from leaving the site.
  • Tamala Park, in partnership with Landfill Gas and Power, extract methane gas from the facility and convert it to enough electricity to power the equivalent of 5500 households.

The Second Stage Pit at Tamala Park

Doing a Great Things with a Rubbish Job

I was extremely impressed with the staff at Tamala Park and the great work they are doing with the waste they receive. They do everything possible to minimise what does go in the ground. And they work tirelessly to educate the community on the need to reduce, reuse and recycle. They even operate an on-site shop that sells goods that come to the landfill but are just too good to be thrown away.

Probably most exciting is the recent establishment of a Resources Recovery Facility at Neerabup. This facility will convert 100,000 tonnes of household waste each year into market quality compost. Given the current stats, this is reducing the waste to landfill by almost 25%. That’s awesome.

The staff degassing fridges

Graveyard for TVs

Seen the movie WALL-E?

I work hard to minimise the waste coming out of our household, and I try to encourage others to do the same. And I thought I understood the scale of the challenge. But when I got to see the actual landfill – the size of it and what was going into it – I was absolutely, completely horrified. I kept thinking of the movie WALL-E, the premise of which is that humans have filled up their planet with rubbish and are forced to move into space stations.

On our tour, we sat at the edge of the hole for about eight minutes. In that time, at least 10 trucks came and dumped their full loads into the landfill (and Peg said that it was a slow morning!) Seeing the compactors roll over couch cushions, fridges, TVs, mattresses, and all manner of other unidentifiable stuff made me feel ill.

AVOID, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

One of the reasons it was such a good experience is it reminded me of the need to stay focussed on the big picture. I can – and often do – obsess about the little stuff. (Example: the recyclability of milk carton lids or TetraPaks.) And I still believe the little stuff is important because it all adds up … one green step at a time and all that.

But if I came away with one lesson, it was to avoid creating waste in the first place. As Peg said, it’s the unspoken step that comes BEFORE “Reduce” in the Reduce – Reuse – Recycle mantra. AVOID buying stuff you don’t need. AVOID replacing something before you absolutely have to. AVOID useless packaging. AVOID taking the easy way out by putting something in your green bin when it could be recycled. AVOID putting compostable rubbish in your bin (it usually goes to landfill and that’s awful). And so on.

And thanks again to the folks at Tamala Park, I will never look at a rubbish truck the same way again.