Landfills

Learn about how landfills are regulated and managed.

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Modern landfills are designed and engineered facilities to bury solid waste. Waste is deposited into landfill cells. When the landfill cell is full, it's capped and rehabilitated.

Landfills are part of Victoria’s waste management infrastructure. They're used for wastes that cannot be practically removed from the waste stream. Disposal to landfill is the least preferred option for waste under the principle of waste management hierarchy.

In the past, landfills had little or no engineering or lining. Over time, this caused unacceptable risks of harm to land and groundwater.

A high standard of engineering now applies to landfills.

Landfills and the law

Under the Environment Protection Act 2017(opens in a new window), there are duties that apply to the management of landfills.

Under the general environmental duty, risks from landfill activities must be eliminated or reduced so far as reasonably practicable.

Landfill owners and operators must meet:

If the landfill causes pollution, the duty to take action to respond to harm from a pollution incident applies.

If you generate or transport waste to be deposited at a landfill site, you may need to meet:

Operating a landfill is a prescribed activity. This means you need a permission to operate a landfill. Permissions have conditions that must be followed. To operate a landfill you need either:

Our role in landfills

We:

  • regulate the management of operating and closed landfills
  • assess the siting and design of new landfills and landfill cells.

Operating landfills

While the landfill is accepting waste, we issue an A05 operating licence or permit. We impose conditions to:

  • limit the type of waste a landfill can accept, depending on its engineered design and where it is located
  • regulate cell construction standards through a landfill cell design and construction approval process
  • specify control requirements for landfill gas and leachate
  • require a risk management and monitoring program to make sure all risks of harm are identified, assessed, eliminated or reduced, such as:
    • offensive odours
    • greenhouse gas emissions
    • groundwater and water pollution
    • vermin, such as silver gulls and ibis
    • noise
    • litter
  • require regular environmental audits from an EPA appointed auditor to:
    • continuously assess risks of harm during the operation
    • make sure mitigation measures are in place to respond to any harm
  • require financial assurance
  • make sure landfill cells are rehabilitated in a timely way.

We also:

  • assess the siting and design of new landfills by issuing development licences
  • inspect operating landfills and conduct compliance assessments
  • audit landfill sites every year to make sure that correct waste levies were paid.

Closed landfills

We regulate the aftercare period of closed landfills by:

Impact of landfills on your health and the environment

Studies indicate no significant risk from living on – or near to – a regulated, well managed landfill.

If you have questions or concerns about landfills and your health, contact us.

Talk to your GP if you have a specific health concern.

Impact of closed landfills

Landfills continue to generate landfill gas and leachate for decades after the site stops accepting waste. This may continue to impact the air, water and land environments.

The general environmental duty continues to apply for closed landfills. Owners of closed landfill sites must continue to eliminate or reduce risks of harm so far as reasonably practicable. This duty applies regardless of whether there is an EPA notice or operating licence for the site.

Depending on the risk posed, risks of harm to human health and the environment need to be either passively or actively managed. A monitoring plan may be needed to monitor the impacts from the landfill.

Many fully rehabilitated closed landfill sites are used as:

  • parks
  • playgrounds
  • golf courses
  • resource recovery centres or other facilities.

Communities sometimes raise concerns when housing development takes place on or next to a closed landfill site.

Impact of landfill gas

Landfill gas is produced as waste decomposes. It consists of mostly methane and carbon dioxide, with over 500 trace gases. Some trace gases are highly odorous.

When not managed correctly, the gases migrate from the landfill through air or soil. This causes risks of:

  • offensive odours impacting neighbours and community
  • release of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change
  • explosion or asphyxiation, if concentrations of methane or carbon dioxide build up in enclosed spaces.

Impact of leachate

Leachate is contaminated liquid that percolates or drains through the landfill. It needs to be removed, treated and disposed of lawfully. When not managed correctly, leachate causes risks of:

  • groundwater contamination
  • surface water contamination
  • more landfill gas being generated
  • offensive odours from anaerobic leachate.

Impact of exposed waste and soils

Waste is exposed when it is first tipped into the landfill cell. It should be covered as soon as possible.

Exposed waste risks attracting vermin, such as ibis and seagulls. Increased populations of these birds may:

  • impact the biodiversity of regional bird populations
  • carry a range of diseases.

Exposed waste may also be picked up by the wind and carried off site, causing litter. Litter carried off site degrades habitats for a range of flora and fauna.

Ongoing construction can expose soils at landfill sites. This may cause:

  • dust
  • turbid or dirty stormwater.

Managing landfills

Landfills can pollute our land, water and air if they’re not managed correctly. Planning, operating and rehabilitating today's landfills needs a high level of design and management to:

  • make sure the environment is protected
  • meet community aspirations.

Operators of modern landfills must consider the best available techniques and technologies for the design, operation and rehabilitation of their landfills. This should include:

  • base and side wall liners for landfill cells
  • extraction systems for leachate and landfill gas
  • full rehabilitation of each landfill cell once it is full of waste
  • a range of management plans.

Management plans need to consider:

  • the full range of risks to human health and the environment
  • how site operators will manage risks during operation and after the site stops accepting waste.

Guidance for managing landfills

Our guidance Siting, design, operation and rehabilitation of landfills sets out:

  • best-practice environmental management measures for landfills
  • the measures you need to take to meet your legal obligations and duties.

This guide is useful to landfill owners and operators when:

  • planning for a development licence
  • applying for permissions for future landfill sites
  • designing new landfill cells.

Our Landfill gas fugitive emissions monitoring guideline establishes procedures for the collection of landfill gas fugitive emissions data. It standardises the steps involved in monitoring and methods to use when collecting representative, quality data for:

  • compliance reporting to us
  • providing data to EPA-appointed environmental auditors
  • remediating the landfill cap and infrastructure – including optimising landfill gas collection systems.

Our Landfills exempt from licencing provides direction on the siting, design, operation, rehabilitation and aftercare of small municipal landfills that are exempt from holding a permission.

Development on or near landfill sites

Under the Planning and Environment Act 1987, planning and responsible authorities assess planning permit applications and planning scheme amendments for development within the buffer of an operating or closed landfill.

A risk-based approach is needed for planning for housing or other development near or on landfill sites because:

  • operating landfills may discharge landfill gas, offensive odours, noise, litter and dust
  • closed landfills may discharge landfill gas and leachate for up to 99 years, depending on site conditions.

Our Landfill buffer guidelines advises the level of assessment a planning or responsible authority should require when making a decision. It recommends a staged, risk-based approach.

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