Labor’s free organic bin collection plan labelled ‘totally impossible’

Labor says it can implement a free weekly organic bin collection at no cost to residents, but a national waste management expert has labelled the plan as totally impossible.

A national waste management expert has labelled Labor’s free organic bin collection plan as “totally impossible,” saying it would cost Brisbane ratepayers at least $26 million in new garbage trucks, wages and infrastructure.

Brisbane Council Election 2024 guide: Candidates, party promises, preference voting

Labor has claimed it can save Brisbane ratepayers $600 million over 10 years by implementing a weekly compost collection service to be recycled at four existing plants.

The plan announced in February was pitched as a cost-neutral plan, with Labor claiming the free service would have no financial impact on ratepayers.

The LNP has suggested proposed Labor changes may lead to changes to current bin collection.

While Labor remains vague on implementation costs, Brisbane Lord Mayoral candidate Tracey Price said initial investment would come from the state government, with the rest drawn from existing funds in the council budget.

Ms Price said her team had already met with numerous stakeholders and waste experts to discuss the viability of the plan.

“Organic waste is currently buried in a hole in the ground. We want to recycle that,” she said.

“Our aim will be to roll the program out without any significant impact to ratepayers.

“This is not just a way to reduce long term costs for ratepayers and reducing our emissions, it’s also about investment in a whole new industry as well.”

Labor’s green bin plan was met with heavy criticism from Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s LNP campaign team who claim the plan could only be financially viable if cuts are made to the weekly red top bin service.

National waste and recycling industry council chief executive Rick Ralph has now weighed in on the plan, telling ABC radio on Tuesday it’s “implausible,” and would cost council $26 million per year.

“The proposal that they’re going to offer this to 500,000 homes and say that it’s cost neutral is it’s implausible and it’s totally impossible,” he said.

“You physically can’t do that with the (current) infrastructure, without adding a whole lot more infrastructure.

Tracey Price is fighting to become the Lord Mayor of Brisbane for Labor. Picture: John Gass

“The state government, they’ve got this program happening at the moment where they want to … give the money upfront to local government for the bins, that’s wonderful.

“The cost offsets between just taking out of this bin and putting that in. There’s a shortfall of around about $26 million a year in capex (capital expenditures) and Opex (salaries and tax), that has not been factored into.”

Mr Ralph said Labor would have to purchase a new fleet of trucks, worth about $500,000 each, and find somewhere to house them, while also paying additional wages for extra bin collectors.

He said a new recycling plant would also have to be built, with the current facilities not regulated for organic waste processing.

Labor said it would likely take a composting or biofuel option to convert the organic waste into renewable energy, with the party floating possible expansions to plants in Coopers Plains, Yatala, Palmwoods and Ipswich.

“We would need to work with industry to work the details out; there is a tender for organic recycling with Council out now so we’ll need to expand on that and work with existing facilities,” Ms Price said.

“There are a number of plants with capacity to process organic waste in South East Queensland, including Earth Renewable in Coopers Plains, Phoenix Power Recyclers in Yatala, Earthborn Australia in Palmwoods, and REMONDIS Renewable Energy and Waste Management Facility in Ipswich.

“These four facilities have all received significant funding from the Federal Government to encourage the expansion of FOGO.”

Labor claim long-term savings would total $600 million over the next decade based off the savings council would make in waste levy costs imposed by the state.

The levy rate is forecast to jump to $145 per tonne by 2027, with the baseline for the levy decreasing to 50 per cent by 2027 and down to 20 per cent by 2030.

Brisbane Labor says an organic waste collection would save council $600 million over ten years at no cost to ratepayers. Picture: QLD ALP

Brisbane Labor says an organic waste collection would save council $600 million over ten years at no cost to ratepayers. Picture: QLD ALP

“These figures show its becoming more and more expensive to dispose of unnecessarily large amount of landfill when so much can be recycled organically,” Ms Price said.

“We’ll also partner with industry on the green power aspect with a significant investment from the State Government in clean energy transition.

“They are allocating $19 billion – companies that use organic waste to generate power are eligible for that funding.”

Labor says councils in New South Wales have implemented similar plans while still offering weekly red top bin collection.

“We will not be changing the red bin collection to fortnightly,” Ms Price said.

The LNP has again heavily criticised the waste plan, saying Labor has not calculated the cost to ratepayers.

LNP campaign spokeswoman Fiona Cunningham said the latest details still did not explain how the waste collection would work or how a Labor council would pay for it.

“They’re now resorting to investing in locations in other council areas, including Ipswich, Logan and the Sunshine Coast, where they plan to pile millions of tonnes of rotting organic waste,” she said.

“If these locations were planned all along, why weren’t they included in the policy they put out just a few weeks ago? If these locations were planned all along, why did Tracey Price and Labor try and hide them?

“The fact is Tracey Price and Labor’s radical plan to change Brisbane’s basic bin services doesn’t stack up.”

Ms Cunningham said the cost to implement the organic waste service in Brisbane would be “at least” $500,000 per week which would only be paid for through rate increases or a cuts to the weekly red lid bin service.

“And require 60 extra garbage trucks, 270,000 extra green bins and 17 million extra bin collections a year,” she said.

National waste and recycling industry council chief executive Rick Ralph.

“Their claim that this radical plan to change Brisbane’s bin services won’t cost anything is utter garbage.”

“Tracey Price and Labor will either have to massively increase rates or cut red bin collections from weekly to fortnightly to pay for their radical bin plan.”

Greens mayoral candidate Jonathan Sriranganathan called the LNP criticisms a “pathetic scare campaign”.

He said his party would be open to negotiating a compost waste service with Labor but it also had no plans to make changes to red top bin collection.

“The Greens would definitely like to see more green waste composting and collection services and that’s something we’d be happy to negotiate with other parties about,” he said.

“But our highest priorities for this election are cheaper housing and public transport.”

Independent mayoral candidate Bruce Tanti does not support the green waste collection, arguing it would result in carbon pollution due to the need for additional garbage trucks to implement the service.

“Which means that Labor is not serious in reducing carbon emissions as it says it is and they are going away from the idea they set about zero net carbon emissions and being carbon neutral,” he said.

“But let not forget the breaking pads in the trucks, do they not have asbestos in them?

“More trucks, more asbestos fibres floating around our homes. My uncle died of asbestos emphysema when he retired from truck driving including semi trailers for a living.”

Mr Tanti said the additional service would also lead to more wear and tear on local roads, driving up maintenance costs, a cost he says will fall to ratepayers.

“Thirdly, this may work for single homes but when you have set of units and flats on one property where the occupants can reach up into 20-30 people, how are we going to fit the bins for each flat or unit?” he said.

“How are we going to fit them onto the footpath?

“I fear that Labor will turn around during the four-year term and introduce small bins by saying we have cut what goes to the dump, so now try a small bin.”

Mr Tanti called the plan a “half-baked Labor idea,” and like the LNP, questioned where the organic waste would be processed.

“Which suburb will bravely put up its hand to endure the stench of rotting organic scraps and the attraction for native animals and rodents from the processing plant since it won’t be going to the dump,” he said.

“Labor is proposing that their organic recycling scheme will be funded in partnership with the Queensland Government’s GROW FOGO Program and over the next 10 years and will save ratepayers over $600m... compost produced could also be sold for profit, reducing costs for ratepayers, but what if population exceeds expectations or drops beyond expectation, then what is plan B?

“October is the new election for Queensland’s state government. What if the new Queensland government is not prepared to continue this (FOGO) partnership with council? Will Brisbane be stuck holding the bill to set up and run this system?”