Reintroducing the Waste Levy in Queensland

Take Action before the 30th June 2019 and you could save $150 on skip hire for rubbish removal.  The Queensland government has passed laws reintoducing waste levies from 1st July 2019. There are some waste business who think that the waste levy creates a strong economic incentive to minimise waste, improve recycling and divert the disposal of waste from landfills.  There are also others in the waste industry who see Waste Levies (also known as Landfill Taxes) as a cash grab by a heartless government who don't care about increasing the cost of living at a time when wages continue to stagnate.

The Landfil Tipping Tax will be charged to waste businesses disposing  of rubbish to landfil tips. The landfill tax which has been set at $75 a tonne will be charged on every tonne of waste sent to landfill. As the tipping of waste is only one component of the waste businesses costs, it gets buried in with the labour, fuel and other operations costs that have to be covered in the price for the services provided. The bottom line to this is that GST will then be added to the higher cost of disposing of waste.  In other states where Landfill Taxes have been introduced the waste businesses that provide the landfill service end up increasing their tipping rates to cover the additional administration costs required to collect and pay the Landfill Taxes.

Over the subsequent years after the introduction of Landfill Taxes the cost of waste disposal often increases far quicker year on year after the levies have been applied.  Maybe this is because the operators of the landfill sites cannot see the sense in the situation where the Government is collecting more money (for doing nothing) than they are, and they are having to run a business and managing the landfill and its operations, paying salaries,  operating heavy plant and maintaining it. The cost or tipping in NSW is 4 to 5 time more expensive compared to Queensland (excluding the waste levy). There is no sense in it as it doesn't really cost 4 to 5 time more to bury rubbish whether you are in queensland or NSW.

At the moment the only thing you can do to avoid the increased cost of Landfill Taxes is to get rid of your unwanted rubbish or waste befor ethe end of June. That is you need to order your Brisbane Skip binwell before the 30th of June so it can be delivered and then picked up and disposed of before the 1st of July. 

At the moment lots of Skip Bins businesses are waiting on clarification from their landfills on what the increase in tipping cost will be. The skip bins businesses will also be wondering if the land fills or other waste and recycling businesses will be offering preferential tipping rates for sorted waste types like separated bricks, concrete, soil (knowm as clean-fill) or green waste.

The impact of the Landfill Tax could be anywhere between $15 and $150 per cubic meter for skip bins. For households doing their annual springclean using a 3 cubic meter skip bin this is likely to be an increase of between $45 and $90 on a bin that costs $170 today. That is an increase in the cost of disposing of your waste of 25%. For renovation waste from doing a bathroom the cost of the bin is more likley to increase by at lease doublle that. The price increase on a 3m skip bin for mixed heavy waste could be between 25% and 50% as the bin is $170 today and it is likely to go up to $260.

The worst thing for waste businesses and skip bin companies about the increase that will occur on July the 1st is the confusion and breach of trust that will occur between them and their customers because of the actions of the Government. Many of these skip bins businesses are the small businesses that keep the economy going and they with their customers in Queenland are about to be hit with a new tax that will effect every..