Reforming waste management
Queensland’s Waste Reduction and Recycling Strategy 2010-2020 provides a vision for a low waste Queensland, and is also a 10-year plan to halve the amount of waste sent to landfill by 2020.
The strategy recognised the need to reform the legislative framework for Queensland waste and the requirement for a strong price signal on waste sent to landfill.
The Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011 received royal assent in October 2011. The Act contains a suite of measures to reduce waste generation and landfill disposal, and encourage recycling. These measures include an industry waste levy, and provision for a waste and environment fund for levy revenue. All levy funds go this fund—unique among Australian jurisdictions that apply a waste levy.
The Industry Waste Levy—payable by landfill operators who put waste in landfills within the levy zone—commenced 1 December 2011, bringing Queensland into line with other mainland Australian states.
The levy is an application of the user-pays principle, aiming to create a price signal to encourage waste generators to focus on waste avoidance and resource recovery, and discourage unnecessary landfill disposal. The Industry Waste Levy will:
- ensure a level of consistency with waste disposal costs in other states to deter unnecessary disposal of interstate waste in Queensland
- fund programs that help establish better waste avoidance, resource recovery practices and overall waste management initiatives
- reduce the impact upon Queensland’s carbon footprint caused by waste disposed to landfill.
More information:
- Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011
- Queensland's Waste Reduction and Recycling Strategy 2010-2020
- Waste Reduction and Recycling Regulation 2011
- Background of the waste reforms
- Regulatory Assessment Statement for Queensland’s waste disposal levy proposal (PDF, 451K)*
- Draft Waste Strategy Consultation: Summary Report (PDF, 295K)*
- Levy overview
- Levy zone map (PDF, 1.6M)*
- Waste management
- Australian Packaging Covenant
- Draft State Planning Regulatory Provision
- Waste Reduction and Recycling Business Plan 2011-2015
- Waste site characterisation survey
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Last updated 16 February 2012