Queensland Waste Levy

Background

The levy on waste is part of a new waste strategy for Queensland to increase recycling and resource recovery and reduce waste. The levy will encourage Queenslanders to reduce, reuse and recycle, only sending waste to landfill if it cannot be recovered.

Around 10.9 million tonnes of waste was produced in 2017-18 in Queensland, enough to fill almost 9,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The amount of waste we produce is also growing faster than our population.

Unfortunately, our state is a major under performer in recycling and resource recovery, with more than half (55%) of our waste ending up in landfill. Queensland is also the only mainland state without a waste levy, which is being introduced to increase recycling and resource recovery.

Impact on the Sunshine Coast

The levy will apply to all commercial, business and industry customers, even if the waste is generated from a domestic premises.

The levy will be charged at $115 per tonne (excluding GST) for general waste and higher levies for regulated wastes.

The Queensland Government proposes to increase the waste levy by $10 per tonne on 1 July every year.

Council will collect the levy on behalf of the Queensland Government through customer waste accounts and at waste disposal facilities.

The cost will be proportional to the amount of waste generated. That includes:

• all household (residential) waste going to landfill
• all commercial waste to landfill
• all waste bins associated with a business
• residents who engage a business to deposit waste to landfill.

To minimize the impact of the waste levy on residents, the Queensland Government will cover the cost of household waste going to landfill. This includes waste from household kerbside wheelie-bin collection and residents self-hauling their private waste.

The levy is intended to make landfill a less attractive option compared to more productive and job-creating uses for these resources.

The levy does not apply to recyclable items, green waste and asbestos.

Advice for businesses

Businesses are encouraged to look at how they can reduce landfill disposal costs by:

• reducing waste
• separating waste streams
• recycling as efficiently as possible
• clearly separating loads when depositing waste to landfill.

The levy will not apply to recyclable components of loads if they are clearly separated.

Reducing waste and looking for alternative ways to manage your business waste is smart business and can lead to other economic opportunities.

Advice for residents

While the levy is subsidized by the State Government for residential kerbside collection or residents self-hauling waste to landfill, anyone engaging a business to deposit waste to landfill on their behalf may incur the levy through passed-on costs. This may include skip bin hire, builders and tradespeople charges.

Residents can reduce the costs by sourcing other avenues for disposing of recyclable or re-saleable items. If you need items collected, online options such as The Freecycle Network, Facebook sale pages, and Gumtree are good places to start. Some charitable organisations also offer this service.

Recycling and reducing waste

The financial impact of the levy can be actively lessened by not sending waste to landfill.

Organic waste, refrigeration appliances, e-waste, re-saleable items and paint can all be recycled for free at council waste disposal facilities.

Some charitable organisations will also collect large household items at no charge.

Visit our Recycling and waste disposal and Recycling and waste education pages for more details about how your business and/or household can reduce, reuse and recycle.

For free tailored advice on reducing business waste, energy and water, visit the ecoBiz website.

More information

Find out more about the Queensland Government waste levy on the state government website.

For more information about our waste disposal facilities and their services please see the rubbish tip locations and fees web page.

Refer to the frequently asked questions.