Erskine Park Landfill Gas Project

The Erskine Park Landfill Gas Project is a waste sector project located in the industrial suburb of Erskine Park, approximately 11 kilometres south-east of Penrith in Western Sydney, New South Wales. Registered in July 2015, the project operates within the Erskine Park Landfill facility, situated at 4 Quarry Road. The site, historically a quarry established in the 1920s, was converted into a landfill in 1994 and is now part of a broader waste management precinct surrounded by logistics and industrial developments.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Landfill Gas) Methodology Determination 2015. This methodology incentivizes the installation and operation of gas collection systems to capture methane generated by decomposing organic waste. Instead of allowing this potent greenhouse gas to vent into the atmosphere, the system directs it to a combustion device, typically a flare or an electricity generation unit, converting the methane into carbon dioxide, which has a significantly lower global warming potential.

Regionally, the Erskine Park area lies within the Cumberland Plain, characterized by the Wianamatta Shale landscape. The environment typically features clay-based soils, which are evident in the site's history as a quarrying resource. The climate is temperate with warm summers, receiving an average annual rainfall of approximately 700mm to 900mm, generally drier than Sydney's coastal suburbs.

The project proponent, Enviroguard Pty Limited, is a subsidiary of the major waste management company Cleanaway. The project transitioned from the earlier "Carbon Farming Initiative" (CFI) scheme and covers emissions from both legacy (pre-2012) and non-legacy waste. Notably, the project successfully completed a Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC102524) with the Australian Government in May 2020, delivering its contracted abatement. The landfill itself has been undergoing stages of closure and rehabilitation, with Cleanaway developing adjacent resource recovery facilities to service the Western Sydney region.