Boral Western Landfill Expansion Continues

The Project

The Boral Western Landfill, occupying an exhausted quarry, is one of the largest landfills in the country with available airspace totalling more than 15,000,000m3.

The facility began offering municipal and commercial waste management services to metro Melbourne in 1999. Multiple processes and procedures are employed at the landfill to minimise the potential for any adverse effects on the surrounding environment and community, and to ensure compliance with Victorian EPA regulations and Landfill Best Practice Environmental Management (BPEM) guidelines.

Such processes include well-defined methods in the construction of each cell, which must be lined with multiple protective layers to prevent leachate contamination of groundwater.

The Boral Western Landfill also features a state-of-the-art Biogas to Energy plant. This plant uses the gases that are generated from the decomposition of the waste material and converts it into enough energy to supply the power needs of around 4000 homes, 24 hours a day.

The Challenges

Recently, two new cells have been added to the facility, requiring the installation of 160,000m2 of liner. The landfill operators needed to meet the stringent requirements of the Victorian EPA and comply with the BPEM guidelines.

Our Solution

Bentofix® GCL was chosen as the most effective product to ensure high safety factors for leachate containment. Working with consultants, installers, auditors and civil contractors, the Global Synthetics team provided a successful solution that met the needs of the project.

Bentofix® Geosynthetic Clay Liner (GCL) is supplied as a roll of bentonite sandwiched between layers of geotextile. GCLs are an effective engineered replacement for traditional clay lining of containment structures, offering the designer an engineered equivalency to clay without the costly import, placement and quality control costs associated with this traditional method.

The volume of containment may be significantly increased with the use of a Global Synthetics Geosynthetic Clay Liner, as the product offers equivalency to very thick layers of compacted clay.

This economical alternative to traditional containment methods is stocked locally In Australia and manufactured to International Standards for excellent performance in landfill situations.

For further information about geosynthetic clay liner products or to order for fast delivery to your site, contact the team at Global Synthetics.