Semakau Landfill is located about 8km south of Singapore. A 7km perimeter rock bund encloses part of the sea off Pulau Semakau and Pulau Sakeng to create the space for the landfill. The bund is lined with impermeable membrane and a layer of marine clay, ensuring that leachate from the refuse is contained in the landfill. Ancillary facilities were built to ensure that the landfill operation is self-sustainable.
Visits to the Semakau Landfill or one of the waste-to-energy plants can be arranged by sending us a request.
The landfilling process at Semakau Landfill:
- Upon arriving at Semakau Landfill, the barge berths at the enclosed transfer building. The tugboat then disengages itself and returns to TMTS with an emptied barge.
- Large excavators with interchangeable and specially designed grabs unload the solid waste from the barge. The solid waste is then placed onto a 35-tonne payload off-road dump.
- A 10m wide paved roadway along the top of the perimeter bund provides access to all sections of the landfill. The dump trucks travel to a designated tipping site and unloads the incinerated ash and non-incinerable waste into the landfill cell. Bulldozers and compactors then level and compact the incinerated ash and non-incinerable waste.
- Each cell is covered with a layer of earth once it has been filled to ground level. Subsequently, grass and trees take root to form a green landscape. A new tipping cell is activated by sealing off the concrete pipes that connect the cell to the sea. An empty space into which solid waste will be dumped is created.