How you plan and manage your site can greatly reduce odour. You can prevent problem odour before it happens and contain odour when it is produced.
Good site planning involves:
- determining where odour-producing processes will happen
- identifying nearby neighbours and public areas that could be impacted by odour
- deciding where to locate buildings and processes to minimise odour impacts.
For example, when designing the layout of your site, you could:
- face receiving bay doors away from nearby houses
- locate odour-producing areas close to odour capture and odour treatment systems.
Management is the ongoing oversight of buildings and processes on your site – for example:
- keeping a daily record of the condition of odour prevention methods and equipment
- monitoring the performance and maintenance of key equipment at your site.
Type of control
- Physical
When to use site planning and management
You should use site planning and management when you establish a new site.
You need ongoing odour management to meet the general environment duty. You must eliminate or reduce the risk of odour so far as reasonably practicable. This means maintaining a risk management process to manage the risks of your odour impacting human health and the environment.
Site planning and management is suitable for managing most odour or potential odour.
All industries can benefit from using site planning and management. Industries that have the most to gain include:
- sites that receive, manage or produce highly odorous materials
- businesses that conduct potentially odorous activities outside.
Considerations and requirements
Planning your site provides you and your employees with a framework in which to work. It does not provide the actual odour control. Odour control is achieved when you follow your site plan.
Each business and site has its own set of challenges. You're likely to need odour controls in addition to good planning.
If you run a high-risk or large-scale business, you may need to engage an expert to support you to:
- develop a site plan
- identify management strategies.
For more information on requirements for managing odour, visit Control odour from your business.
When planning your site, make sure it complies with all state and local laws – for example, local planning laws and building regulations. Contact your local council(opens in a new window) or the Victorian Building Authority(opens in a new window).
Develop a site plan and management strategy
When you develop your site plan and management strategy, you should plan for:
- your activities and processes
- your neighbours
- weather conditions.
Plan across the life cycle of your production, including:
- receiving and storing raw materials that are odorous
- conducting processes that are odorous
- storing and collecting odorous wastes.
Activities and processes
Understand the site areas that pose or will pose the most risk in generating odour.
For example:
- plan how to load or unload odorous material
- keep receiving bay doors closed when not in use to keep odorous material enclosed
- use automated door-closing systems and rapid fall doors
- pull trucks directly up to receiving bays to minimise exposure to outside air
- use a double roller door system, such as an airlock
- use a truck wash facility to keep trucks free of odorous residues when leaving your site
- develop appropriate cleaning practices for spills, residual odorous material or animal holding areas
- conduct odour-producing storage or processes indoors
- use suitable odour control solutions – such as an odour cover – if you are storing odorous material outside.
You may not always be able to locate a process or stockpile indoors or cover it. If this is the case, plan for appropriate separation distance between your site and adjoining properties. You cannot emit odour past your property boundaries. For more information, see our Separation distance guideline.
Identify management actions, such as monitoring and keeping records of operational processes.
Neighbours, public areas and facilities
Plan how to reduce the impact of your odour-producing activities on neighbours. Neighbours can include:
- private residences
- schools and kindergartens
- universities
- hospitals
- other areas where people congregate.
Plan the timing of your processes and operations to reduce the impact on neighbours.
Weather conditions
Understand the typical local wind direction around your site. This can inform the best way to minimise odours impacting your neighbours.
Understand the conditions of your site. For example, if the site is often wet, humid, dry or hot, this may influence odour production.
Plan for operational procedures. For example, restrict odour-producing processes outdoors on days that are:
- especially hot (over 35oC)
- windy.
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