‘Landfill crisis’: Industry call for major hike to Queensland waste levy

Queensland could become a dumping ground for interstate garbage unless the Labor government hikes its waste levy to keep up with other eastern states, the rubbish sector has warned.

Industry is warning the Queensland government to hike its waste levy to match other states or risk interstate rubbish being dumped in the Sunshine State.

Queensland could become a dumping ground for interstate garbage unless the Labor government hikes its waste levy to keep up with other eastern states, the rubbish sector has warned, as the nation faces a “landfill capacity crisis”.

In its budget last month, the Victorian government announced a $40 a tonne increase in its rubbish tax from next year to match the rate in NSW, but Queensland is lagging well behind both states, making it much cheaper to dump waste in landfill in the Sunshine State.

Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia chief executive Gayle Sloan said the Queensland government should act decisively in next week’s budget and lift its levy by $55 a tonne to equal NSW.

“The current Queensland levy rate is completely out of step with neighbouring NSW,” Ms Sloan said. “Levy harmonisation across the eastern seaboard is a vital step to move the waste and resource recovery industry forward by not only putting a clear price on valuable material that should be recovered where it is generated, but also to stop material moving between states to avoid the levy.

“We also need to remember the goal of the levy is to recover (resources) and act as a disincentive to landfill material. We hope the government never receives any proceeds from the waste levy. You only pay if you landfill.”

Cleanaway’s corporate affairs head Mark Biddulph – former Labor premier Anna Bligh’s deputy chief of staff – said the largest waste and recycling recovery company in the country would also “like to see Queensland raise their waste levy”.

Mr Biddulph said some parts of Australia were running out of space in dumps, and there was a brewing “landfill capacity crisis”.

“Harmonising the waste levy will stop the transfer of waste (interstate) but also … encourage that infrastructure and recycling,” he told a Senate inquiry.

Australian Council of Recycling chief executive Suzanne Toumbourou also backed a standard waste levy across the eastern states but said without good compliance and enforcement, “we won’t get the full value of any levy”.

“We need to make sure we (stop) where material is skirting that levy,” Ms Toumbourou said.

It is understood landfills are able to take advantage of a “daily cover exemption”, which means waste can be dumped to cover up the day’s rubbish, without having to pay the waste levy, but some unscrupulous operators are taking advantage of the exemption.

The Labor government introduced a levy on waste going into landfill from July 2019, which is passed on from dump operators to customers at the gate. The idea is to encourage businesses to reduce and re­cycle waste, so it doesn’t have to be dumped.

Government statistics show interstate waste dumped in Queensland has decreased from 1.3 million tonnes in 2017-18 to 273,000 tonnes in 2022-23, but the state is still on track to fail seven of its waste management targets by next year’s first milestone date.

Environment Minister Leanne Linard effectively ruled out an increase in the waste levy to keep pace with the rate in the southern capitals, and said a smaller hike had already been legislated.

“From 1 July, the waste levy for the South East Queensland area will increase by $10 per tonne to $115 a tonne (for the general levy rate). The rate in regional council zones has increased by the annual indexation rate. From 1 July, 2025, the waste levy will increase to $125 per tonne,” Ms Linard said.

Local Government Association of Queensland CEO Alison Smith said councils would not oppose a larger levy increase as long as the government “held on to its public promise that households would not have to pay more as a result of Queensland’s waste levy arrangements”.