State Waste Levy for Goondiwindi
« Back14 February 2019
State Waste Levy for Goondiwindi
The way we deal with waste in the Goondiwindi region will have to change to meet a tight timeline for the introduction of Queensland’s waste disposal levy.
The Goondiwindi region is a last-minute addition to the new waste levy zone that includes 39 of the 77 local government areas in Queensland.
The Goondiwindi region was originally not included in the levy zone, but was added at the last minute due to opposition by other regional councils to its exclusion.
Queensland was the only mainland state without a waste levy. The Queensland Government’s Waste Reduction and Recycling (Waste Levy) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018 has been imposed to stop New South Wales trucks from dumping waste in Queensland and to invest in new waste recovery industries.
The new state levy will be $75 per tonne of landfill waste as of 1 July 2019.
Goondiwindi Regional Council Director of Community and Corporate Services Jason Quinnell said that Council was going to have to do everything it could to limit the effect of the levy, but the bottom line was that the way we deal with waste in the region is going to have to change.
‘The days of just taking everything to the dump are on the decline,’ Mr Quinnell said.
‘What it comes down to is that dumping commercial waste will now incur a $75 levy fee on top of existing fees. There will be no charge for most domestic people – it will just mean their waste goes to a transfer and not a landfill as is current practice in Goondiwindi and Texas.’
‘We have a tight timeline to prepare for this introduction if we are left with the 1 July deadline, so residents are going to see a lot of activity from Council over the coming months to work with all of our region’s communities in preparation for the change.’
Council is yet to model the cost implications of the changes but can expect to be in a position to distribute more information about how the changes will affect our region’s townships in mid-April 2019.
-ENDS-
For further information, please contact:
Jason Quinnell
Director Community & Corporate Services
Goondiwindi Regional Council
Phone: 07 4671 7402
Email: JQuinnell@grc.qld.gov.au