Management costs at the council-owned Smythesdale landfill have spiked by almost $2 million following a sharp increase in waste taken to the site in the past year.
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While the recycling crisis is partly the source of the rise, it is mostly due to more commercial waste going to the site, figures suggest.
The agenda released for the ordinary council meeting on Wednesday shows contractual costs for the site have leapt by $1,943,698.07 for the current financial year.
More than 5000 tonnes of extra commercial waste and 250 tonnes of waste from external councils went to landfill in 2019 compared to 2018.
The base rate of the contract went up $1,511,698.07 after discussion at the council's contracts special committee.
A further increase in operational costs of $432,000 was also approved for the waste contractor Cleanaway, which will go towards its management of the site.
A further requested contract variation - to be available in the event of equipment failure - was rejected by the committee.
Cleanaway is now into its third year managing the site, the council's director of infrastructure and the environment Terry Demeo told The Courier.
Mr Demeo said there had been no previous variations to the contract beyond the consumer price index.
The recently agreed contract variations were due to the increase in waste volumes going to the site, as well as new operational challenges getting from one cell to another, he said.
During the recent recycling crisis, several councils were forced to dump material collected in recycling bins to landfill.
Both Golden Plains Shire and Pyrenees Shire are understood to have used the Smythesdale landfill site to dispose of material collected during kerbside recycling collection. The two councils now have new recycling contracts.
The crisis was precipitated by the collapse of SKM, the company which used to process the City of Ballarat's recycling alongside material collected from at least 30 other municipalities.
Mr Demeo said the increase in management costs was partly attributable to the fallout from the recycling crisis but that one of the big drivers was an increase in commercial waste triggered by Ballarat's rapid growth.
Despite the increased contractual costs for managing the site, neither the City of Ballarat nor ratepayers should be further out of pocket due to the extra revenue council can charge for the dumping of waste.
"It is cost neutral to council given the increased volume we are accepting," Mr Demeo said.
Council officers project the amount of commercial waste accepted at the site will continue to rise over the next two years.
Approximately 50,000 tonnes of waste currently goes into Smythesdale landfill each year.
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