Landfill operations

Since 1991, the Tamala Park landfill site has provided a vital service - managing household waste from homes across the Perth Metro Area.

Today, approximately 4,000 tonnes of household waste is sent to Tamala Park each week from seven local government areas. These ‘member councils’ (the cities of Joondalup, Perth, Stirling, Vincent and Wanneroo, and the towns of Cambridge and Victoria Park) – represent a population of nearly 800,000 people.

The 250 hectare site at Tamala Park is licensed as a Class 2 Waste Disposal facility, with 22 of those hectares being approved by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for use as landfill.

Each acre dedicated to landfilling is known as a ‘cell’. 12 of these cells comprised Stage 1 of landfilling, which was completed in 2004 and has since been covered (‘capped’) and revegetated. Stage 2 comprises three 'phases'. Phase I was completed in 2009 and capped in 2010. Phase II commenced in 2009 with completion and capping taking place in 2012.

The landfill at Tamala Park is now in Stage 2 Phase III, which will be the final phase of landfill at Tamala Park. Projections for the completion of Stage 2 Phase III have been revised in recent years as the volume and type of waste being sent to landfill have changed.

There is approximately one million cubic metres (from a total ten million cubic metres) of ‘air space’ remaining in the Tamala Park landfill. This must be filled for Mindarie Regional Council (MRC) to meet the terms of its license and close the landfill in line with Best Practice Environmental Management guidelines.

If the current trends continue, we expect that the landfill will close in 2028 or 2029. However, landfill sites require careful management, even after they have reached the end of their usable life and it will take time to safely cap (seal), rehabilitate and revegetate the area.

Other services at Tamala Park – such as the recycling area, transfer station and public weighbridge – will remain open, and MRC is already looking to the future of our site, with a focus on resource recovery and circular economy initiatives.