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Landfill Gas Management

Over the past several years, several improvements have been made in an effort to mitigate landfill odours.

InformationLandfill Gas Management
Landfill Gas Management

Odour issues at the Robin Hood Bay landfill arise from naturally venting landfill gases, which are typically dispersed by prevailing westerly winds or higher wind speeds. However, certain weather conditions, such as low atmospheric pressure, low easterly winds, and damp conditions, exacerbate odour problems by allowing gases to drift toward populated areas.

To address these challenges, Robin Hood Bay has implemented significant measures to reduce odours. Over half of the landfill is capped with an impermeable liner to trap gases, while an extraction system channels the gases to a flare for safe combustion. Additional steps include improved waste covering, liquid disposal bans, and the installation of nine new gas collection wells between 2017 and 2018. Ongoing efforts include expanding capping material coverage by 10 hectares to enhance gas capture and destruction efficiency.

The landfill remains committed to further improvements and evaluating strategies to mitigate odour concerns effectively.

Causes of the odours

Landfill gases are always passively venting from the landfill. Usually the prevailing westerly winds blow them towards the Atlantic Ocean, or higher wind speeds break up or disperse the odours. Odour problems from Robin Hood Bay are worsened when there is a combination of low ceiling, low atmospheric pressure, low easterly wind speed and damp conditions.  These conditions allow more landfill gas to escape from the landfill and disperse towards populated areas of the east end of the City.

What Robin Hood Bay has done to mitigate the odour problems

Over half of the landfill is capped by an impermeable liner which traps the gases from passively venting to the atmosphere. An extraction system diverts landfill gas to a flare where it is burned off. Over the past several years, several improvements have been made in an effort to mitigate landfill odours. These include changing the direction of the landfill working face, improving the covering of garbage, banning the disposal of liquids, capping more of the inactive sections of the landfill to trap the gas, and installing more extraction wells.

We are continuing to work on improving the landfill and evaluating further changes that are necessary.

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