Gympie council reveals options to solve rubbish problem

Residents will be invited to have their say on how recycling and waste disposal is managed moving into the future, as the clock ticks down on a nearly exhausted town dump and the costs of any new strategy will likely be high.

A new Gympie landfill with a 100 year lifespan is among the options now on the table as urgency continues to ramp up on deciding what happens when the Bonnick Rd dump finally shuts its gates for good.

A new Gympie landfill with a 100-year lifespan is among the options now on the table as the sense of urgency around the region’s future rubbish disposal solution increases in conjunction with the rapidly approaching end date for the Bonnick Rd dump.

When the Gympie Regional Council next meets on December 11, settling on that solution will be in the high on the agenda.

The question of “what’s next” for the council has been lingering for more than a decade, with options including a once proposed “Super Dump” at Toolara, and transporting our waste to other council areas floated as possibilities.

Bonnick Rd, even with its recently added expansion, is expected to be full by 2028, with its space “rapidly exhausting”.

More than 83,000 tonnes of waste was handled by the council alone in the 2022-23 financial year, a draft report on the future waste strategy says.

Of this, 48 per cent was sent to the region’s dumps, a number which can be significantly cut.

A new Gympie landfill with a 10- year lifespan is among the options now on the table as urgency continues to ramp up for the region’s council (Mayor Glen Hartwig and CEO Robert Jennings pictured) to decide what happens when the Bonnick Rd dump finally shuts its gates for good.

An audit of household waste in 2023 found two-thirds of the rubbish in the region’s red lid kerbside bins, currently sent to landfill, could instead be composted or recycled.

It was now “essential” to consider ways to reduce and treat Gympie rubbish to cut reliance on landfill over the next 10 years, the report says.

It says the council’s rubbish services faces challenges, including “limited landfill space, high transport costs, and a dispersed population that needs to increase its understanding of how to recycle and increase recovery, and decrease contamination”.

Even with its recent expansion, the Bonnick Rd dump is expected to be full by 2028.

Rubbish disposal and waste management costs the council about $15 million each year.

“We need to build a new landfill or transport waste to another region for disposal – either option is a significant investment or ongoing cost to ratepayers,” the report says.

The Gympie council’s new draft strategy follows a similar report tabled at a Fraser Coast Regional Council meeting in August 2024, which painted a dire picture of the future of waste services across all six of the Wide Bay Burnett councils.

An audit of household waste in 2023 found two-thirds of the rubbish in the Gympie region’s red lid kerbside bins, currently sent to landfill, could instead be composted or recycled.

This report also left the door open for a new landfill site in the Wide Bay Burnett, but did not mention the Toolara proposal.

The Gympie council’s new strategy said developing new ways to manage organic waste was necessary, too.

There was a need to develop organic recycling to ensure the region met its environmental and state targets, but the solution was not clear cut.

Introducing a three bin home collection system which included organic waste, as has been done in other parts of Australia, is hindered by the size of the region, the report says.

This made creating a cost-efficient service “logistically challenging”.

Providing commercial food waste collection services, home composting, or a mobile recycling collection centre were options to consider.

The strategy will need to be open to public consultation before the council can approve it.