Cairns 2024 council election: Eden’s green waste, recycling policies

A Cairns mayoral candidate is promising to help solve the city’s green waste woes and offer apartment dwellers more recycling services if elected next month. See what’s been pledged.

A Cairns mayoral candidate is promising free green waste disposal and more recycling for apartment buildings if successful in the March election.

Announcing the policies on Wednesday, Team Eden leader Amy Eden said it was a “huge” issue after people were hit with fees when cleaning up ahead of Cyclone Jasper.

Cairns Regional Council offers just quarterly week-long periods of free green waste disposal, at a cost of about $645,000 according to the latest budget figures.

However Ms Eden said offering the service for free year-round would reduce the region’s landfill and ultimately save the council money amid rising state government waste levies – with savings to be passed onto ratepayers.

Team Eden leader and Division 5 councillor Amy Eden has promised to offer free year-round green waste disposal if elected as Cairns mayor. Picture: Annabel Bowles

“In the lead-up to Cyclone Jasper we had months worth of green waste dumped in a couple of days, and the biggest feedback from community was, ‘you’re penalising us for doing the right thing’,” she said on Wednesday.

“(Also) we’ve got hundreds and hundreds, thousands, of units here in Cairns that do not have any recycling facilities.

“We’re going to work on a way with the body corporates to make sure that we can get all of that recyclable waste out of landfill.”

Council audits reveal that just a quarter of rubbish that’s put into red general waste bins should go to landfill.

Team Eden leader and Division 5 councillor Amy Eden (in pink) has promised to offer free year-round green waste disposal if elected to Cairns mayor. Here she is pictured with other Team Eden candidates Trevor Tim, Jo Piggott, Kesa Strieby and Ian Moller (L-R). Picture: Annabel Bowles

About 60 per cent is food and garden organics while 15 per cent is recyclables.

A Cairns Post poll conducted earlier this month showed an overwhelming four-fifths of readers thought Cairns should have dedicated green waste wheelie bins.

Ms Eden, the current Division 5 councillor, would not go as far as promising a household green bin pick-up service but said it was an issue she was eager to work on.

Unity Team leader Terry James and Community First leader Denis Walls have both previously said they would consider dedicated green waste bins as well.

However the current Mayor’s team is more focused on supporting the existing waste strategy plan, which is still out for consultation.

Smart water meters, more native tree cover and net-zero council operations by the decade’s end are other pillars of Unity Team’s green policies.

Cairns ratepayers currently cough up between $9.50 for a small load and up to $71 per tonne to dump green waste.

Originally published as Cairns 2024 council election: Eden’s green waste, recycling policies