South Cardup Landfill Gas Project

The South Cardup Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas capture and combustion operation located at the Hanson South Cardup Landfill, approximately 45 kilometers south-east of Perth, Western Australia. While the project registry coordinates point towards the Greenmount area east of Perth, the physical facility is situated on Shale Road in the locality of South Cardup, roughly 5km south of the town of Byford. Registered in August 2012, the project operates within a former shale quarry on the edge of the Darling Scarp.

The project involves the extraction of landfill gas (methane) generated by decomposing legacy and non-legacy waste. This gas is captured and combusted in a generation facility to produce renewable electricity, preventing potent greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere. The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas) Methodology Determination 2021, having transitioned from earlier methods. It has a generation capacity of approximately 3.3 megawatts and successfully completed a Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC143500) under the Emissions Reduction Fund in 2021.

The surrounding South Cardup region is characterized by a mix of rural, agricultural, and extractive industries, including grazing and brickworks. The environment features a Mediterranean climate, with the site's position on the Darling Scarp often resulting in higher rainfall (historically noted around 1200mm) compared to the coastal plain. Soils in the area are typical of the Scarp's geology, consisting largely of lateritic gravels, clays, and shale, which originally made the site suitable for quarrying before its conversion to a landfill in the late 1990s.