August 2, 2023
Blackbutt’s waste transfer station will get a commercial waste collection facility in the next few months.
The upgrade will mean businesses which generate commercial waste will no longer have to cart it to Nanango, the nearest South Burnett commercial waste facility.
The new service answers long-standing requests from several Blackbutt area businesses.
It will be introduced as a six-month trial to test its feasibility.
The decision to trial a commercial waste collection service at Blackbutt was made at the South Burnett Regional Council’s Infrastructure standing committee meeting on Wednesday.
Officers told the meeting that Blackbutt’s Waste Transfer facility – which is open between 8:00am and 5:00pm Thursdays to Mondays – processes an average of 14 tonnes of domestic waste each week.
Because the transfer station doesn’t have a weighbridge, ratepayers would be forced to pay as much as $66,000 extra per year to the State Government in Waste Levy fees if Council allowed commercial waste to be mixed with the domestic waste stream.
However, providing separate commercial waste and cardboard recycling bins at the Waste Transfer Station would eliminate this problem.
Officers estimated businesses using the commercial waste collection service would pay $55 per 240 litre bin load.
This cost would be partially offset by eliminating the need to haul waste to Nanango.
Officers recommended the new service be trialled for six months, and the budget for the town’s Waste Transfer facility be amended at the next quarterly Budget review.
