The Tamala Park Landfill Education Center
The Tamala Park landfill Visitors Center is a lively place full of examples of Up-Cycling “Trash” into Art and Educational Resources to teach visitors the importance of Reducing, Reusing and Recycling.
Its aim is to engage the community to get the waste message across to as many people in the region as possible. Their message:Â ” We are all in this together. We only have one planet, Earth, to call our home. At home, we need to reduce, reuse and recycle-and dispose wisely… We can, and must work together to leave this place better than the way we found it”.
Here is a great example of Up-Cycling an old Fridge by turning it into a home for Worms that make incredible POOH compost
I have for the most part of my life been a city person. I don’t know how to grow food or make compost, but I know now that is it very important for all of us to learn how to grow our own food. So after this visit I have made the decision to change! I an going to learn how to grow my own food and to reuse my organic waste into compost!
There is something very important I learned on this tour.  My green organic “inoffensive” garbage, when it decomposes in a landfill produces Methane gas. Yes Methane gas the kind the makes our planet climate change, with all the devastating consequences.
Green Power !!!
The Good News is that this Methane Gas can be used for Fuel! At Tamala Park landfill methane is extracted and generates electricity. The project is a joint venture between MRC and Landfill Gas And Power Pty Ltd. The Process generates efficient electricity to light and power about 5550 households!
I hope that each day around the world there are more inicitaitves like this one. During the last part of my tour we were joined by two engineers who are in the process of assembling another mega-project like this one, turning trash into energy! The cost of doing this and the time it requires is astronomical, but I think in the end it will be so rewarding. As I told them: “That is the Future. It is so visionary to lead your business down that road!”
The Tamala Park Landfill
This landfill receives about 1,000 tonnes of waste a day, the equivalent of 150 garbage trucks !  We visited the landfill by bus and I wasn’t able to take quality picture of the big hole in the ground but here are a couple of shots and my considerations.
This Mountain of sand is the sand that was taken out to make the big hole where all our garbage goes, and it is reused for covering the trash. After bulldozers run across it to compact it, the sand also prevents the rubbish from flying away. But Plastic bags still find the way to fly out, that is why the sourrounding areas have bushes to catch them.
Another problem that arises in the landfill is the lurking wildlife that come at night searching for food. These creatures can’t really discern plastic bags from food, so please think about the waste you produc  and the consecuences it has on the environment and the animals of this planet. It’s time we become more aware of how our choices have consequences, just because we don’t see what happens it doesn’t make us less responsible!
I think visiting the Tamala Park Landfill showed me how garbage is disposed of in a developed nation- I think the MRC is doing a great job, they are teaching people about waste management, they have a state of the Art Composting Facility and they are doing there best to manage the huge amounts of trash the northern suburbs of Perth produces.Â
I just wonder if this is the best it scary to think of those countries that don’t have the resources. There is so much room for improvement on the topic of Waste Management, so much each one of us can do. We must join together with huge amounts of creativity and tonnes of imagination to project our future towars Zero Waste cities!
