Blaxland tip, plagued by bad odours since February last year, has come up smelling if not not quite like roses, at least a great deal better than it has been.
A summary provided to the last council meeting showed that the areas experiencing fugitive gas escape are reducing and that any reports of gas are immediately attended to with additional bio-cover material.
Complaints about the tip odour increased after flooding in February 2020. Although council tried to the problem complaints continued and in November the mayor made the unusual request in November to call in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to investigate. The EPA then placed special controls on the tip's licence.
Remedial measures have largely been completed and a final report was to be handed to the EPA by the end of this month.
But council has now sought a two-week extension to that deadline because the COVID lockdown and restrictions on movement have delayed site reviews by specialist consultants.
Meanwhile, council has signed off on a tender that will allow 100 per cent recycling of timber materials at the tip.
Bingo was awarded the $1m, two-year tender to supply skip bins and transport the waste to the Eastern Creek Ecology Park where it will be processed into natural and engineered timbers.
A report noted that timber waste is frequently generated in the community.
"It is a difficult waste to manage as it consumers large volumes of space and does not easily compact into the landfill, which creates operational and environmental challenges.
"The off-site management and processing/reuse of timber waste is an effective, safe and sustainable approach that increases the council's waste diversion targets."
