Town Planning Report - Expansion to Noosa Landfill

“Specialist services and practical solutions”



       Given most of the land is designated for landfill (utility installation), it must be reasonably
       expected that the landfill operation would continue to expand to cater for the increased waste
       generated and to reduce the reliance on landfilling. The expansion of operation necessarily
       requires more land; however, where carefully managed and implemented the amount of land
       needed can be minimised to reduce the environmental impacts.

       It is also reasonably expected that more land might be required for other waste management
       facilities and initiatives that could provide for a greater amount of waste reduction and other
       benefits in the long term. This could include use of other sustainable resources generated by
       waste such as menthane production along with the addition of solar power, providing
       substantial environmental and cost saving benefits to the Noosa community. This could also
       extend to the development of green industries that would have a direct association with the
       waste facility and benefit from such resources in the future.

       In terms of the need to expand the landfill, the following comments are provided:

           •    Regional waste problems – There are substantial benefits to be provided by the
                development in terms of being better aligned with regional waste plans. Waste is an
                increasing issue for the region and Queensland more generally. State and local
                government waste plans promote waste avoidance, reduction, and resource recovery
                actions. In this case there is a substantial need to expand the RRA area to continue to
                develop and improve resource recovery operations to achieve and maintain National
                targets. The current resource recovery component is currently constrained by space,
                and this affects the ability to facilitate and enable waste avoidance, which is of key
                importance to managing waste in the long term.

           •    Risk to public safety - The current RRA has limited space available for public and
                commercial operations to safely separate and dispose of recyclables. The RRA involves
                the direct access by the public to the various recyclable/material locations, with heavy
                machinery also operating in these locations. There is currently a high level of risk
                associated with this part of the operation, which has been identified as a work place
                health and safety issue. Council is currently intermediately managing the operation on
                this part of the site, with the use of staff as spotters to reduce the level of risk associated
                with the operation of heavy machinery during busy periods. The expansion of the RRA
                will provide the necessary space and separation to mitigate this safety risk to an
                acceptable level.

           •    Fire risk, green waste stockpiling and separation - Fires associated with landfill sites
                pose a significant risk to the operation, the environment and emergency services.
                Council is acutely aware of the fire risk in this location, with the surrounding vegetation
                having a medium and high fire risk designation under the planning scheme. The limited
                space of the RRA has increased the difficulty of maintaining safe offsets between
                mulch/green waste stockpiles and the surrounding vegetation. This is particularly the
                case for green waste, which can spontaneously combust if not properly managed.
                Incorrectly managed mulch stockpiles because of reduced space could place the site
                and the surrounding environment at increased risk from fire.




       22019 – Noosa Council Expansion of Landfill, November 2023                              Page 15