Ballarat council draft budget 2021/22: Waste charges spike as push goes on for landfill rethink

After a freeze on the waste collection charge last year and EPA levies going up sharply for dumping waste, it is one of the steepest rises in recent years. Households can expect to pay a $416 - up from $363.10 for waste collection, with green rubbish now $72.

On the launch of the budget for public feedback, mayor Cr Daniel Moloney highlighted the bill footed by ratepayers for dumping into landfill, with $7.9million going to the state government.

"People of Ballarat are writing a nearly 8 million dollar cheque to the state government just purely to dump our rubbish in a hole," he said. "When it comes to this massive cost of waste - it's depressing. We can over time progressively address that issue."

Cr Moloney and council officers hope that investment and planning currently being done will help divert waste from landfill.

The proposed solution is not a new concept: an "all-waste interchange" has been talked about for years. In last year's budget council set aside $5 million to purchase crown land at the Ballarat West Employment Zone (BWEZ) to make it a reality.

It has been slow going. A recent grant application to Sustainability Victoria was knocked back, with the council needing more backing beyond its own coffers for a project that has been valued at around $30 million.

However, the City of Ballarat's director for infrastructure and environment Bridget Wetherall said the business case was being tightened. The recent citing of the need for a materials recovery facility in Ballarat in an Infrastructure Victoria report was encouraging, she said.

"It has been recognised by the state advisory body as a key piece of infrastructure so we really want to leverage off that and advocate. It has a really strong business case and potentially a commercial partner to deliver on that."

If successful, it would feed into the long-delayed "circular economy" strategy released by the state government in February last year. Ms Wetherall said the plan would be to attract businesses to make use of diverted waste streams.

Infrastructure Victoria has specified that it wants to develop markets by "explicitly requiring the Victorian public sector to use recycled products where feasible".

"That's really exciting because it will create hopefully jobs - not only reduce our impact on the environment but have greater social outcomes because we can co-locate things like men's sheds, research and development hubs," Ms Wetherall said.

"We're on the cusp of creating a whole new outlet for our waste, instead of burying it - and get a lot more value from a whole different range of perspectives, not just financial."

While Ms Wetherall was cautious about timelines, the hope is the project will begin to take firm shape over the next year - and gain solid financial backing.

City of Ballarat CEO Evan King: "We're building a new cell out at the landfill at the moment. That's a $2.9 million cell. We need to be planning for the future, we need to be setting aside funds to cover that. To continue to build $2.9 million cells to divert waste is a pretty short term view. There will be a real focus over the next few years of us trying to divert as much waste from landfill as possible so we can take the pressure off that waste charge."

Also read: City of Ballarat draft budget 2021/22: Rates offer a ray of light for businesses but disparity remains

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