Rockhampton Regional Council says rising transport costs are making Queensland's recycling targets difficult to achieve without additional help for regional communities.
About 10,000 tonnes of household recyclables from the region are transported roughly 600 kilometres to a processing facility on the Sunshine Coast each year. Mayor Tony Williams told ABC Capricornia that recycling transport and processing cost the council about $300 a tonne, compared with about $100 a tonne for some south-east Queensland councils.
The council's waste services cost about $3 million annually, with more than one-third attributed to transport. A previous local materials recovery facility was destroyed by a battery fire in 2020, and the council has not yet attracted a replacement private operator.
Queensland's waste strategy sets an overall recycling target of 65 per cent by 2035 and expects major regional centres to halve the amount of waste they send to landfill. Rockhampton argues that increasing recycling volumes can increase its freight bill unless the geographic cost gap is addressed.
State Environment Minister Andrew Powell said the government was providing $11 million for new regional infrastructure and designing another fund to help councils move recyclable material for processing. Details of that proposed freight assistance are still being developed.
Sources: ABC Capricornia report; Queensland Government council waste-payment information.
Image disclosure: The featured image is an AI-generated editorial illustration. It does not show a specific Rockhampton truck, route or processing facility.
