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An increase in landfill height will give the Launceston Waste Centre an extra 17 years of operation, the council says.
A development application proposes increasing the maximum final landfill height at the northern end from 90 metres to 107 metres above sea level at the Calvary Road, Mowbray site.
The City of Launceston council lodged the DA with itself to delay the need for a new landfill site.
In other news:
The council's chief executive officer Michael Stretton said the proposed increase, if approved, would provide an addition 1.5 million cubic metres of landfill air space.
He said the aim of the proposal was to increase the site's lifespan by increasing the landfill's height.
"[It equates] to an additional 17 years of operations based on current filling rates and diversions," he said.
"Landfill cells are a valuable resource, and the [council] has undertaken a number of measures to increase the lifespan of our cells by diverting recyclable and re-usable items away from them.
"The less material we ultimately send to landfill, the longer our landfill cells will last.
"That is why in recent years we've constructed the purpose-built recycling centre at the Launceston Waste Centre, the Uptipity re-use shop and introduced the FOGO kerbside service for organic waste."
As assessment of the proposed height increase found the main visual difference would be it would become visible at Kennedy Street, Mayfield.
It found impacts to properties closer than three kilometres may benefit from screening vegetation at the site.
However, it found the visual impacts would not be substantially greater than those of the existing approved height.
The proposed increased northern landfill height will not change the site's operation. However, it means the site will have 17 more years of leachate and gas generation.
The site receives waste from outside the municipal area too, including from the West Tamar, Northern Midlands, George Town and Dorset council areas.
The development application is available for public comment until October 7.
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Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
