QLD waste levy must match NSW or risk influx of Minns’ bins: industry

The Palaszczuk government is under pressure to hike its waste levy or risk a rush of NSW rubbish coming across the border to be dumped in cheaper Queensland landfill.

Queensland is being warned by industry to hike its waste levy to match NSW’s or risk rubbish being trucked across the border from down south and dumped in Queensland landfill.

The Palaszczuk government is under pressure to hike its waste levy or risk a rush of NSW rubbish being trucked across the border to be dumped in cheaper Queensland landfill.

Before Queensland introduced its waste levy in 2019, one million tonnes of interstate waste was dumped in the state in 2017-18. The most recent data shows that’s dropped to 460,000 tonnes in 2021-22, including a dispensation for NSW to transfer 170,000 tonnes of flood disaster waste early last year.

But industry bodies warn Queensland’s waste strategy is perversely encouraging local and interstate rubbish to be dumped rather than recycled, partly ­because the state’s levy rate is so much cheaper than NSW’s.

In a scathing letter to Queensland Department of Environment director-general Jamie Merrick last month, Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association Australia chief executive Gayle Sloan said the state’s ­approach to the levy and offset payments to councils had “regrettably hindered” private investment in recycling infrastructure.

Ms Sloan said the levy rate was far too low, should be on par with that of NSW, and warned if the settings did not change it risked NSW rubbish being dumped over the border, particularly once the Sydney basin landfill space reached capacity in 2028.

“In (our) view the current levy remains too low and the slated $10 increase per year fails to keep place with current inflation, nor will it keep pace with the NSW levy rate,” Ms Sloan wrote.

“Queensland may find itself ­receiving growing volumes of inert waste crossing the border.

“Regrettably, whilst well intended, the annual levy payments to councils are not incentivising avoidance or recovery behaviour, and if anything act to inhibit ­investment by councils in recovery infrastructure.”

The Queensland budget will be handed down in two weeks.

Asked whether Queensland would increase its waste levy to avoid the disparity with NSW, new Queensland Environment Minister Leanne Linard said from next month the levy would ­increase by $10 per tonne in southeast Queensland to $105, and by CPI for the rest of the state. “In 2025-2026, the general waste levy rate will increase to $125 per tonne,” Ms Linard said.

But industry sources say that’s not enough to keep pace with the NSW tax, which will rise to $163.20 a tonne in metropolitan areas from next month.

Local Government Association of Queensland chief executive Alison Smith said councils wouldn’t oppose a change if ratepayers didn’t have to pay for it.

“Councils wouldn’t oppose a change in state policy to increase the waste levy as long as the state government holds to the Premier’s promise that households would not have to pay more as a result of Queensland’s waste levy arrangements,” Ms Smith said.

Australian Council of Recycling chief executive Suzanne Toumbourou said the nation’s waste levies should be harmonised to avoid arbitrage between the states. But she said there should be a two-tier approach so recycling companies were not disadvantaged from having to deal with contaminated material.

“We need strong levies to act as a lever to divert (waste) from landfill and (reverse) the backward slide away from resource recovery targets,” she said. “But we need to make sure recyclers are not disadvantaged because ... they get lumped with a lot of material that does need to go to waste.”