Council warned tip fees will lead to spike in illegal dumping
Council has been warned a spike will occur in illegal dumping if gate fees are introduced at waste recycling centres. Full details
Gold Coast
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A spike will occur in illegal dumping if gate fees are introduced at waste recycling centres, council has been warned.
Councillors will consider a recommendation from officers to introduce the charges when they meet for a crunch vote on Tuesday to discuss a Waste Network Plan.
The proposed change – first revealed in the Bulletin on Monday – has been described as a “silly move” by some residents, who expressed concern that it would see rubbish dumped on the side of the road, “costing us more to remove”.
In a report, council officers admitted that other councils faced more complaints about waste left in suburban streets once fees were introduced.
Gold Coast City Council in the 2024-25 budget had approved an increase of 49 per cent for the Local Law Enforcement budget to address the issue, they said.
“Other councils have experienced a spike in illegal dumping for up to 12 months post access changes, before levels return to normal,” an officer wrote.
The hotspots for illegal dumping were Southport and Surfers Paradise, with the annual cost to the City of more than $7 million.
Councillor Brooke Patterson confirmed illegal dumping remained a problem in Southport.
“Residents have been recently and consistently raising concerns about people dumping on the street,” she said.
“I wouldn’t be supporting anything that would do anything other than deter that.”
In the past four years, the highest category of dumping has been furniture and household items, accounting for about 40 per cent of materials.
Officers will suggest expanding the bulky kerbside service and increasing City Cleaning services and laws to combat the problem.
The most common infringements are for dumping household goods on the kerb, leaving garden waste in local parks and needles along with syringes on beaches.
Councillors at the Water, Waste and Energy Committee will vote on several recommendations including tip fees and closure of smaller waste recycling centres on Tuesday. The committee’s decision would then be debated at full council for a final vote on February 18.
Committee chair Shelley Curtis said it would be “irresponsible” not to be look at the potential consequences of any major change to the City’s waste strategy.
Research showed a potential 12 month spike in illegal dumping if tip fees were adopted, but it could be mitigated by upgrading other services like cleaning, she said.
“However, it is actually far more important that we concentrate our efforts on the actual root cause of these issues,” Ms Curtis said.
“We are already experiencing illegal dumping at levels that exceed community expectation, despite an extensive WRC (Waste Recycling Centre) network, with limitless, free-to-access tipping for residential customers.
“Clearly there is another causative factor at play, and we perhaps need to be focusing our attention there if we want to see meaningful and sustained improvement, rather than relying on a model that clearly doesn’t solve the problem.”
Ms Curtis said increased access to kerbside collection programs could be a solution.
The Plan does not specify how high the gate fees could be, but as a guide Brisbane City charges $17.40 for general waste and $14.60 for green waste. Tip gate fees at the Sunshine Coast and Ipswich City range from $15 to $18.
Officers have proposed to councillors a number of potential options for charging residents:
* Increase the general Waste Management Utility Charge in your rate bill.
* A user pays model, with gate fees charged at tips from the first visit.
* A user pays system which includes vouchers for a free visit to present at the gate — these would be funded by your waste charge in your rates.
* User pays with a gate fee charge applied from the first visit — to ease the burden, council would expand its annual bulky kerbside service with large blue bags.
A timeline shows the charges would be introduced from October and November this year.
At least $380,000 would need to be budgeted to cover a communication program to be launched citywide in August.
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Originally published as Council warned tip fees will lead to spike in illegal dumping
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