Suntown Landfill Gas Project

Suntown Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas management project located at the Suntown Landfill in Arundel, approximately 10km northwest of Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It was registered in July 2014 by LMS Energy Pty Ltd. Given its location on the Gold Coast, the surrounding land use is predominantly highly urbanised, consisting of residential estates, commercial facilities, and light industrial zones.

Landfill gas projects involve installing a network of extraction wells and pipes into a landfill to capture methane-rich gas generated by decomposing organic waste. Under the standard requirements of the Landfill Gas methodology, this captured gas must be sent to a combustion device, such as a flare or an engine, where the methane is combusted and converted into carbon dioxide and water vapour, significantly reducing its global warming potential.

The Gold Coast environment experiences a humid subtropical climate, typically characterised by high annual rainfall. The soils in the coastal plain and estuarine surrounding areas of Arundel are generally composed of coastal sands, sandy loams, and alluvial clays.

The Suntown Landfill project captures and combusts gas from both legacy and non-legacy waste. It initially operated under a revoked 2012 Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) method before successfully transitioning to the 2015 methodology determination. Interestingly, the management of landfill gas at this site has been historically critical for the local community; in 2013, nearby Arundel residents launched a class-action lawsuit against the Gold Coast City Council over escaping landfill gas and leachate impacting their properties. The mitigation project contracted its carbon abatement to the Australian Government in April 2017. This contract (CAC726270) was completed in June 2022, successfully delivering over 200,000 tonnes of carbon abatement to the Commonwealth.