Waste FAQs

You may place these items in your recycling bin:

• glass bottles and jars
• cardboard boxes
• milk and juice cartons
• newspapers and magazines
• office paper and junk mail
• rigid plastic containers from your kitchen, laundry and bathroom
• steel and aluminum cans
• empty aerosols in the recycling bin. 
  

Contact the Waste Hotline on 1800 312 934 to arrange pick-up within the next 24 hours.

Disposal of waste to the local waste management facility does cost more than using a kerbside waste collection.  Further details on why the costs are different is provided below.

Kerbside collected waste is taken to Muswellbrook Waste Recycling Facility where it is weighed.  The waste levy of $81.30 is applied to the cost of disposal which is paid by the contractor. 

This cost is passed on to Council in its contract with the contractor and Council passes on the cost of the contract to ratepayers in the waste fees included on the rates notice.

This cost is calculated at a rate per service (i.e. one general 240L waste mobile garbage bin and one 240L recycling mobile garbage bin).  As the cost per service is calculated over a long term (approx. 10 to 14 years depending on the contract), on average bin weights and includes economies of scale for transportation, the cost of kerbside collection (general waste and recycling) to ratepayers in 2017/18 was $535.60.  Residents with kerbside collection cannot opt in or out of the service and pay the same amount no matter how much waste they dispose of.

If a resident was to take one 240L mobile garbage bins (MGBs) to the Scone Waste Facility which has a weighbridge they would be charged for the weight of the material in the bins at $245 per tonne (2018/19 financial year) for general mixed residential waste which will vary depending on the types of material in the load.   Of this $81.30 per tonne is EPA waste levy.  An MGB filled with recycling is accepted free of charge.

At a non-weighbridge site (Merriwa, Murrurundi and Aberdeen) one 240L mobile garbage bins (MGB) with general mixed residential waste will cost $15.00 (2018/19 financial year).  The EPA’s deemed weight for a 240L MGB is 0.06T at $81.30 per tonne.  This equates to $4.88 per bin.  An MGB filled with recycling is accepted free of charge. 

If you were to take a 240L MGB with mixed waste weekly and a second filled with recycling fortnightly (equivalent to the kerbside service) to a non-weighed waste facility for a year, this would cost you $780.00 (52 x $15 for the general waste as recycling is free) of which $253.76 is paid to the EPA as waste levy.  A yearly ticket for 52 x 240L MGBs of general waste and one box trailer of waste may be purchased from Council for $600.  MGBS filled with recycling are accepted for free.

The fees for loads taken to a non-weighed waste facility

It is important to ensure that you sort and separate your recyclables from your load to ensure that they can be disposed of for free.  Also make sure that the remaining load of mixed waste fills your bin, trailer or vehicle as Council is not able to legally charge for part of a load.  If you are unsure about this, contact Council first on 6540 1100.

Asbestos can be disposed of at Aberdeen Waste Management Facility.  Asbestos is not be accepted at Scone, Merriwa, Murrurundi or Cassilis.

Asbestos must be wet down and completely encased in heavy plastic in manageable sizes and sealed so no asbestos can escape.

The Waste Management Facility must be notified at least 24hr prior to bringing asbestos into the site.

Council requires a handling fee to be paid in addition to the normal disposal costs.
Disposing of Asbestos Waste

To sell or give mulch away mulch to the public Council is legally obliged to ensure that the mulch is free from weeds, pests and disease as well has have stringent risk control measures in place. 

As Councils source green / garden waste from a number of sources, material is often processed into compost to remove weeds, pests and diseases prior to sale. 

Upper Hunter Shire Council does not have a composting facility.

Residents can take simple actions to reduce their fees at Upper Hunter Shire Waste Management Facilities.

You could halve the cost of rubbish disposal by separating recyclables and other materials, and only taking a full load to waste depots in Aberdeen, Merriwa and Murrurundi.

The 2018/19 review of the fees and charges being applied to waste highlighted that some of the fees relating to vehicles entering the non-weighbridge sites were not covering the cost of the waste levy.  This is mostly due to the deemed weights applied by the EPA for the waste levy.  

In effect Council and hence ratepayers are subsidising the use of the non-weighbridge waste facilities, in particular by Commercial operators. This situation is not sustainable and over time has created a shortfall in waste revenue that is used to enable site improvements and upgrades.

The 2018/19 Fees and Charges contain increases to these fees plus other changes, both increases and decreases.  These changes were made to; ensure that fees were equitable between the weighed WMF and non-weighed WMFs (to minimise customers transportation of waste to non-weighed sites within the LGA), equitable with adjoining Councils (to minimise transportation from outside the LGA), to encourage behaviour change in the community in particular to sort loads for recycling, to simplify the Fees and Charges structure and enable compliance with EPA reporting requirements.  

The fees structure is now based as follows: waste that goes to landfill incurs a premium fee, waste that can be processed for reuse incurs a lower fee and recyclables are received for free.

Rural residents that do not receive kerbside waste collection pay an ‘environmental waste control’ fee on the rates notice.  This fee covers the cost of education, advertising, cleaning sites of litter and illegal dumping and other activities that are not part of normal domestic waste collection and disposal.