Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council wants to hear from residents about its new plan to manage waste. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
A new facility to manage the Queanbeyan area’s food and garden cast-offs may be on the cards.
It’s an idea raised in the draft Waste Management Strategy 2025-2045, which Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council (QPRC) has released for public feedback.
According to the draft document, QPRC currently transports FOGO (food organics and garden organics) to Shellharbour.
A council-owned facility would hopefully reduce service costs and create new jobs, according to the strategy, though there would be a higher operational risk.
It comes as a deadline for expanded FOGO facilities approaches.
According to the NSW EPA’s website, the new legislation means that FOGO collection services are mandatory for the state’s households by July 2030. (Meanwhile, businesses and institutions need to have the service implemented in stages from July 2026.)
In the ”FAQ” section on the council’s Your Voice QPRC website for the strategy, the council also says it could be located on vacant land in the area.
“We expect the FOGO mandate will put pressure on FOGO processing capacity in NSW, and if council is a stakeholder in a facility it may result in improved economic and financial outcomes for our community.”
Currently, various waste facilities are used across the LGA, with the council citing low population density and remote locations as reasons not everyone has their bins collected from their homes.
“These factors make it logistically and economically unfeasible to provide standard kerbside services across the whole LGA,” the document says.
The draft strategy raises concerns that rural waste facilities (particularly Bungendore and Braidwood) are in need of upgrades or staffing changes.
“Rural recycling stations and bin compounds have been identified as high-risk sites requiring targeted upgrades or service model reviews,” the draft strategy says.
“Meanwhile, larger facilities like Bungendore and Braidwood serve as regional hubs and have benefited from more substantial investment.”
The council suggests expanding operating hours at the Braidwood and Bungendore waste transfer stations and adding a full-time equivalent for Braidwood’s.
Upskilling council staff and developing new policies and procedures that staff could refer to are also suggested.
A range of actions for the area’s waste infrastructure – such as rehabilitation of the LGA’s former landfills, a new site “to process self-haul garden waste” after the Oaks Estate site closes and a waste management levy for residential and non-commercial properties – are also proposed.
The draft strategy also takes aim at QPRC’s kerbside bulky waste collection, with demand seen as exceeding the service’s capacity and funding.
According to the council’s statistics, about 45 per cent of kerbside waste is diverted from landfill, while there is a 52 per cent diversion for the LGA (including all drop-off facilities and bulky waste).
To help manage the demand, the council could review the service’s adoption, support buy-back facilities to encourage recycling or consider giving households a voucher (meaning people could drop off their waste at a pre-determined facility).
The draft strategy also suggests that QPRC expand its communication and education campaigns and use its waste app to communicate with residents for online booking and payment of waste-related activities.
Support for local businesses (through things like waste management contracts, land zoning or direct investment) to help them be more sustainable is also proposed.
It is also suggested that QPRC consider how to implement programs tailored to First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse communities in the LGA.
The draft Waste Strategy 2025-2045 is available on QPRC’s website. Community consultation will close on 15 September and includes in-person information sessions until 11 September.
