Waste Management

Council is committed to achieving best practice in waste management across the Barkly region.

Consultants IOLAR delivered a waste management and resource recovery strategy to Council in November 2016 as part of Council's commitment to provide waste management and solutions for the region.

The waste management and resource recovery strategy was developed to ensure that the objectives and targets of the federal and Territory Government legislation and policies will drive and influence waste management in the community of Tennant creek and its landfill.

Special Purpose Grants are also being sourced to develop master plans for the strategic improvement of landfills in communities. This is to ensure that communities and their drinking water are safe from leachate, while at the same time making sure the landfills are not too distant from the communities which can lead to illegal dumping.

Robust analysis of landfill and waste resulted in Council for the first time hiring contractors to shred the very growing pile of rubber tyres (4455 in total) at its Tennant Creek landfill, eliminating the potential for mosquito breeding. Reusing the shredded rubber as soft-fall for playgrounds or for commercial purposes is now being investigated.

Car crushing (386 in total) stirred mutual interest in the neighbouring regional councils of central desert and MacDonnell and so through the Central Australian Waste Management Working group (CAWMWG) plans are underway to seek special capital funding to procure a metal baler to equitable service the three regions. A draft business plan has been proposed that sees the new equipment paid off in its first year of service at the current price of steel. This is a milestone for a joint partnership between the three regional councils.