The Queensland Government waste levy will cost the Bundaberg Region $1.3 million in the next financial year, and $4 million per year in future years, if no change is made to the state’s implementation plans.
State Government waste levy impact on Bundaberg Region residents
| State Government rebate | Cost to ratepayers | |
| 2024-25 | 100% | $0 |
| 2025-26 | 70% | $1.3 million |
| 2026-27 | 60% | $1.8 million |
| 2027-28 | 50% | $2.3 million |
| 2028-29 | 40% | $2.9 million |
| 2029-30 | 30% | $3.4 million |
| 2030-31 | 20% | $4 million |
Bundaberg Region Mayor Helen Blackburn has already spoken directly with the Environment Minister regarding concerns about the waste levy and is calling for intervention.
“So far the waste levy has not impacted residents because the State Government has been covering the full cost of the levy for residential waste through advance payments to Council,” Mayor Blackburn said.
“From the 2025 financial year the State Government will start to phase those payments out.
“In year one this is a $1.3 million cost to local ratepayers which, to put that into perspective, is the equivalent financial impact to ratepayers of a 1.4% rates increase.
“By the time the levy reaches its full extent, this figure is expected to grow to $4 million per year.”
Mayor Blackburn said, at present, there was no commercially viable way for Council to achieve the state’s zero waste to landfill target leaving no option but to pass the costs on to residents.
She’s calling on the State Government to delay its plans for the implementation of the levy and continue to work with local Councils on the solution.
“We wholeheartedly agree that waste should be diverted from landfill wherever possible however we’d like to be working with our community to achieve this, not against them,” Mayor Blackburn said.
“Imposing millions of dollars of additional taxes on a community that is already struggling with the cost of living isn’t fair.
“We’re calling on the Queensland Government to reconsider its rollout timeline for the waste levy.”
Our bin is going out every 2 to 3 weeks and we probably put the recycle bin out once a month. so we are doing the best we can with reducing our amount of rubbish. So it is not fair that all rate payers should have to take the brunt of a 1.4% increase in their rates.
So, when I go to the tip to place recycling, does that mean that there will be a charge? If there is an increase in rates for this, why would someone who does not receive a service of waste collection be forced to pat this increase in rates? (we live in an area where we don’t have waste removal services). And all those rate payers who already pay for that service and then, if they visit the tip and have to pay to dump waste, doesn’t that seem like double dipping by the coulcil?
This is rediculous, council is opting out of looking after aged and disabled people,having at least 14 people lose their jobs, and stressing around 200 clients. So much for a slogan of roads rates and rubbish.
To me, it seems like penny pinching to a high degree.
Are you sure that you haven’t got a secret line to Trump and his slimy band from over there to way down here? Sure seems like his M.O.
It’s amazing how some people try to sugar coat their actions of “cost cutting” by saying that they feel that people will be better off by their actions.
The Crisafulli Government doing what many people expected; slugging Qld residents. This is a very poor decision. I appreciate the Council can not do anything in this situation, but pass the fees on. What the Council can do, is to take proactive action to avoid anything going in to landfill, that doesn’t really need to go in landfill eg. green waste and organic material such as food scraps. There was a period before the current Council in which progress was being made on both these fronts. Unfortunately, these have been reversed or halted. If you can reduce the volume of landfill, you reduce the cost to Council per ratepayers …..and assist environment protection. For the comparatively minimal ongoing cost or one-off capaital cost, both initiatives would have long-term benefit financially to ratepayers and environmentally. Surely, it is worth seeing what other Councils that have already introduced these measures, assess their progress, as well as some expert waste consultancy.
FILL ALL THE EMPTY MINE HOLES TRANSPORT TO THEM CHEEPER
Larry.
The rates in Bargara is higher than a lot of other Regional councils. My Brothers rates on five acres on the Sunshine Coast is lower than mine. Georgetown in Tasmania is half the Bargara rates.
Please no more increase in rates or we will be moving out of this Region.
We already recycle cans and bottles our selves. Maybe give us all a 44 Gallon drum and we can start burning our paper and cardboard?
Singapore has a great waste solver they burn the lot
For many years, quite a few people have been calling for a GREEN WASTE BIN. Apart from one small trial, I have heard nothing further on this. In several areas, the large green waste bins appear to be filled up with palm fronds and other garden GREEN waste. It all goes to landfill! All of it is suitable for composting. AND … not all of us have access to vehicles and trailers to drive towards Bargara to dump it at Greensill’s facility. So, to my mind, if Council is serious about trying to reduce this levy; it should be working towards providing green waste disposals for all households. At a different level, Council rubbish bins at beaches and venues, could INCLUDE re-cycling bins; which would thereby gain income from the 10cent refund on bottles and cans; and reduce the amount going to landfill.
It’s the new lnp government in Queensland stealing this cash from you. Not the council
1. Compost or worm farm everything that you can.
2. Bokashi your Kitchen Scraps. Even meat bones & dairy can go into a Bokashi systems.
3. Compost palm fronds & tree branches in a separate dedicated bin as these take a long time to break down.
4. Chickens, Ducks & Geese love having some scraps as part of there feed & you can use the eggs they make.
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If you can’t afford a system like this your neighbors maybe able to take some of it? Some people even take home scraps from there workpalace or charity origination to compost.
The only things I have going out now are non refundable containers in the yellow bin. Three is nothing going into my green bin.
It’s a per a ton of garbage added if we can minimize the waste going out as much as possible it could be significantly less taken from our council to pay this levy. I’ll give it a real crack & see how much I can reduce my waste going to the dump. Yellow bin waste as well seeing they were taking about it getting contaminated in the collection truck.
If we can save the council upwards of $4 million dollars/year we should try our best that we can manage.
At $1.4 million/year & growing to $4 million per a year. A better option would be for us to have a central composting company. This would provide jobs & give us a product that could be sold to our farmers. Reducing need for fertilizer & fertilizer run off into water systems.
Green Solutions Wide Bay for instance takes composable items for $5.50 small vehicle with availability to take commercial & tip trucks for increased cost. Council might even be able to use them to offload “green waste” bins if there trial becomes a full bin service?
Put rates up on the notion that we are getting a rate cut on our mortgages that will more then make up for the loss we already have 2 mortgage rate cuts with 2 more anticipated. Give the pensioners a offset and be done with it.
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Not 1.4%. Put us upto being equal with Fraser coast that would be a 3.5% increase ($98/year on average) we can do that. We are richer then Fraser coast with better unemployment.
This should also give council some extra breathing room & allow a defect reduction for sometime until we need to increase it again.
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Reducing our personal & business waste will also help.
@Larry Burning is great but only if you capture alot of the C02 coming off of it.
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What we could do is:
Install methane gas capture technology & power generation the power generated would offset the cost to council.
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Biomass can be fermented and distilled to create ethanol that can be sold.
Biomass can also be Anaerobic digested into methane that could be burnt for electricity generation as well. This is very similar to composting.
Gasification by turning the garbage into syngas this involves bringing solid waste to a high temperature to harvest gas released.
Bring back, back yard incinerators . the most efficient way of waste reduction ever. Let us burn our own rubbish, residue from the incinerator goes back into the earth as fertiliser- NO WASTE
Burn the solid garbage to make electricity I know it makes C02 but it can reduce landfill by 87% & reduce toxic run off into the reef. We can capture at least some of the C02 reducing impact. Capture & burn the methane coming off the dump as well to make more electricity.
Use the electricity produced to reduce the amount of Coal & gas we are burning as a alternate fuel. Sell the saved coal & gas to other Countries.
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If we did this our current dumps may never fill & that would save future lands from being contaminated by our waste.
How are we struggling? This is one of the cheapest areas to live in.
50% of our residents own there own homes outright & brought in a town that is cheap to buy in. – Half of these residents own a second home that is used for investment purposes in the region.
26% of our residents are mortgage holders that pay lower then average repayments due to dwellings here being cheaper.
24% are renting paying lower rents then in many other cities also due to the cheap nature of property in our region. If there unemployed a higher proportion of there rent is covered by Centrelink rent assistance then usual.
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The only people who know the meaning of struggling in our region are homeless & substance abusers that should be on cashless welfare cards.
In this day and age technology is well advanced that a bar code with the rate payers details on the bin, so as the bin is picked up it is weighed and charged. That way a one person household would not pay as much as a multiple person household. Billing would be on rates notices.
A fairer way of doing things.
Look into small incinerators which generate electricity. One over in WA is up and running.
The $1.5 million we are missing out on for not handing in 10c containers is enough to offset the first rise. If we handed them instead of risking them going to the landfill. Those of us who don’t need the few dollars a week it would generate could donate it to charity.
Remember we could be saving upwards of $28 million/year on green waste in time. Compost your stuff if you can. Even a 20-30% reduction in this would protect us from rate increases. If we did enough we might even be able to get a rate cut.
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Another thing some of you could do is buy a mulching lawn mower & mow more often. This would deposit the clippings back into your yards meaning you have no grass clippings.
Jane Tibol, great ideas. We do something similar. We compost all vege/fruit scraps for the garden All green waste, including palms are chipped and used to retain moisture. Weeds at one stage were being made into a liquid fertiliser but not lately. We don’t compost paper products as don’t know what chemicals are in them. Even our seafood scraps generally go back to the ocean. Only if they are 100% Aussie caught. Most weeks our bins have very little in them. Ray
If household waste is not levied. What this says is ‘it’s okay to keep doing what you want at home however when you go to work you need to recycle’.
This MUST be a shared responsibility. It’s simply misguided to think people that cannot sort their household recyclables, come to work and change their behavior. No amount of advertising and education is going to change this. Providing a round robin deal to sweeten the burden for local council’s still leaves the same issue. If people are not made responsible they WILL NOT change their behaviors.
A lot of the rubbish you see at the Tips are the made in China products. Purposely designed for a short shelf life. Everything from Shoes to Refrigerators. Rubbish products should be banned from coming into the Country.
As usual the 1st person impacted is the dear old lawn keeper/landscaper. They have to get weighed and fork out $310/tonne for waste that comes from the ratepayer. most common practice is to pass the cost on to the ratepayer Ratepayer payed the rates and paid again to dump more rubbish.
if you trailer your own rubbish they charge you less tonnage with a smaller minimum fee $15. commercial guy gets a minimum $30 plus higher tonnage rate. Both trailer loads come from a ratepayer. different charges in each example.
Bring back free dump and no nonsense weighbridge. Ratepayers have paid
there due already.
dismantle the stupid levy system that labour introduced close the whole department down and save Queensland $$$ from the public purse.
We don’t need their levy.