RUBBISH: Councils dump on Gold Coast mayor's claim

QUEENSLANDERS can build a wall to keep out Northern NSW rubbish-dumpers - they'll need to blame someone else for Gold Coast trash piles though.

Bundaberg Regional Council purchased an 85m3 AZMEB HVST for their waste transfer purposes.Photo Contributed. Picture: Contributed

QUEENSLANDERS can build a wall to keep out NSW trash - they'll need to blame someone else for Gold Coast rubbish piles though, as none of it comes from Northern NSW councils.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has complained to The Gold Coast Bulletin about trash coming into his shire from over the border and likened himself to US President Donald Trump, saying Gold Coast City Councillors wanted to "build a wall and let 'em pay for it" - "'em" presumably being councils on the Northern Rivers.

"Kyogle waste stays here in Kyogle," said Kyogle Council Senior Environmental Health Officer David Bell.

"Ours is processed here, we built a very large and very expensive facility called the MRF (Materials Recovery Facility)," said Lismore City Council spokesperson Terra Sword.

"Some metal components get taken to Brisbane for metal recycling," she said, presenting a list detailing Council's waste management program - nearly all waste in Lismore City shire was recycled and landfill was stored at Wyrallah Road in East Lismore.

"Ours goes to a landfill up in Toowoomba, not the Gold Coast," said Byron Shire Council's Team Leader for the Resource Recovery and Quarry, Lloyd Isaacson.

"All recycling goes to Lismore, and kerbside collection goes to Lismore."

Mr Isaacson said council waste management was largely dictated by site availability within shires.

"It's all managed by the Environmental Protection Authority," he said, "our site is smaller and more constrained, we have all but used up our landfill in Myocum".

Council chose a garbage transport company via an open tender process, said Mr Issacson, and the contract winner had an existing service with a Toowoomba landfill facility.

He said landfill waste was trucked to council's Myocum site weekly before another truck, two or three times the size of a regular council garbage truck, took up to five loads per week across the state border to Toowoomba.

"We're about to embark on a strategy to reduce waste in the shire," he said, "we've engaged some consultants to look at technology, services and education to reduce what we send out, we're looking at trying to reduce landfill".

"We've got some exciting resource recovery initiatives, we're doing a biomass perspective, looking at quantifying organic waste collected in shire."

Richmond Valley Council General Manager Vaughan MacDonald was unavailable for comment but a spokeswoman said landfill "doesn't go to the Gold Coast".

Ballina Council Manager Coordinator of Waste Management Jenny Hellyer said no landfill was trucked to the Gold Coast.