Queensland waste levy to cost $70 a tonne

A waste levy of $70 a tonne will apply in Queensland from January 1 to stop companies sending rubbish north to avoid similar charges elsewhere.

Queensland will again have a waste levy from next year to stop the state being used as dump for interstate rubbish.

The $70-per-tonne charge will apply from New Year's Day, with the state government promising councils financial help to make sure they don't pass on costs to ratepayers.

Acting premier Jackie Trad said the councils would get an advance on the additional charges they would face.

"There is no flow-on effect of the waste levy to households," Ms Trad told reporters on Friday.

She wouldn't say how much she expected the levy to raise, or where the money for the initial advance payments to councils would come from.

But she said those figures would be in the state budget on June 12.

Labor is reintroducing the levy - scrapped by the Newman LNP government in 2012 - to ensure there is no financial incentive for interstate businesses to ship waste north in order to dodge levies in force in southern states.

The levy is less than the $81.60 levy imposed in regional NSW, or the $141.70 NSW Metro is slugged with, but the government said the Queensland levy would provide a deterrent when combined with the cost of transporting the waste over the border.

The Queensland levy for general waste will increase by $5-a-year for four years from 2020.

The announcement came on the same day Ipswich City Council said residents had responded well to a renewed recycling program, after it backed down on threats to stop recycling due to cost and the high rate of contamination.

The issue prompted the state government to bring forward the implementation of the waste levy in an effort to prevent a domino effect of other local councils pulling out of their recycling programs.

In a statement, Ipswich City Council said after signing a new deal with waste provider Visy they were hopeful a public education campaign would help contamination rates reduce from around 50 per cent to under 15.


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Source: AAP



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