The Waste Recycling Industry Association of Queensland has released a report on investment in regional initiatives funded through levy collection, which found that Queensland was the last state government to sign up to the Recycling Modernisation Fund and was lagging behind on waste and recycling targets.
With a 54% resource recovery rate, the state is a considerable way behind national leader South Australia, which has an 83% recovery rate.
The waste levy was introduced in Queensland in mid-2019 with the aim of stemming a tide of commercial waste from interstate, with the government promising there would be no impact to Queenslanders.
The report highlights the use of rebate payments as a major impediment to the levy’s integrity and shows that Queensland is the only jurisdiction in Australia that has created an incentive to direct more waste to landfill through these payments which is contributing to Queensland's current headline metrics.