TERRITORY and Municipal Services are advising that the Mugga Lane landfill will recommence accepting all of the ACT’s general waste from Saturday 20 December 2014.

As a result the West Belconnen emergency landfill will close to general waste on Friday 19 December 2014.

“Interim arrangements have been in place since October which saw about half of the ACT’s waste redirected to West Belconnen landfill while work took place on building two new cells at Mugga Lane landfill”, said TAMS Business Enterprise Division Executive Director, Phillip Perram.

“The first of the two new cells at Mugga Lane will be ready to accept waste by mid-February. These cells are expected to provide a further 30 months of landfill capacity. The new cells are part of the planned Mugga Lane stage five development, which will cater for the ACT’s waste needs until at least 2035.

“Further one-off essential landfill modification work at Mugga Lane between 27 November 2014 and 24 December 2014 is ensuring that the Territory has access to the maximum possible space for future waste deposits.”

Mr Perram said that residents living in nearby suburbs, as well as businesses in Hume industrial estate, may notice an intermittent odour over the next two weeks when the protective soil cover is temporarily removed from the waste.

“To minimise the effect on nearby residents, the landfill contractor is implementing various odour counter-measures, including deploying an odour suppressing machine, and progressively re-covering exposed waste with soil as soon as the operation permits.

“The odour and the effectiveness of the odour counter-measures are influenced by the prevailing weather, including recent wind, rain and high humidity.”

Mr Perram said work undertaken since 2011 has optimised the operational life of the Mugga Lane landfill site. To enable waste to be buried in less space, ACT NOWaste has increased compaction rates and completed two in-fill projects that buried more waste between existing cells.

“The Government remains committed to the implementation of the ACT Waste Management Strategy which provides a long-term vision for reducing waste and recovering resources to achieve a sustainable, carbon-neutral Canberra.”

Mr Perram said that although West Belconnen will cease accepting general waste, the disposal of asbestos, including from Mr Fluffy homes, will continue as planned at the West Belconnen landfill.

He also thanked industry for their cooperation while the interim arrangements have been in place.