Project Profile – Fort Bend Regional Landfill

Facility: Active Municipal Solid Waste Landfill

Location: Needville, Texas

Owner/Operator: GFL Environmental / WCA Waste Corporation

System: Leachate Phyto-Utilization™ with Vetiver Grass

Installation Year: 2017

Design: Rows of vetiver plants over 4.5 acres

Our Fort Bend project was the largest vetiver installation in the US to date, covering 4.5 acres of the landfill's intermediate cover.  Between 2017 and 2022, the system processed nearly 2.5 million gallons of leachate and helped the facility avoid off-site disposal costs.

Vetiver Immediately After Planting

Vetiver During Establishment


Our Phyto-Utilization™ systems use fast-growing and non-invasive plants to consume liquid waste in a GREEN and sustainable way in order to greatly reduce or eliminate the need for other, more costly disposal methods.  The systems are engineered to pump leachate from a pond or tank through a fully automated pre-treatment and distribution process and up to a field to irrigate the rows of vetiver.  Vetiver plants then utilize the leachate, normally considered waste, as a resource by absorbing the needed moisture and contaminants, which act as micro and macro nutrients to fuel plant growth.