THE City of Coffs Harbour (Council) is to ask the neighbouring councils of Clarence Valley and Nambucca Valley to allow access to their landfill sites for the City’s red bin waste for the next four years.

Coffs Harbour has processed the yellow and green bin waste for Bellingen and Nambucca Shires since 2007 and will continue to do so until the end of the current waste contract in 2027.

Andrew Beswick, the City’s Director of Sustainable Infrastructure, said, “Our neighbouring local government areas all have landfill sites that can accommodate residual red bin waste for decades to come.

“In the meantime, our own waste facility is near capacity and we are having red bin waste trucked three times per day, six days per week to Queensland.

“The City would therefore welcome neighbourly assistance with accepting up to 15,000 tonnes each of the City’s residual red bin waste for the four-year period ending June 2027.”

Requests will be made to Clarence Valley and Nambucca Valley Councils to accept up to 15,000 tonnes of the City’s residual waste on an annual basis from July 2023 until June 2027, on mutually agreed terms.

If satisfactory arrangements can be agreed, the City will re-engage in discussions on a broader regional waste processing and disposal strategy beyond 2027.

“We’re all interested in discussions over a regional plan for waste management after 2027, but the City’s immediate issue is the disposal of its red bin residual waste for the next four years,” Mr Beswick said.

The City is also progressing plans for a new waste transfer facility capable of separating local domestic and commercial waste and processing it on-site or transferring the different materials to relevant operators, to further reduce the amount of waste having to be sent to landfill in future.

Several possible sites have been identified and work on developing a concept design is moving forward.

The proposed waste transfer facility would accommodate numerous complementary functions at the one location, including a compactor, gatehouse and weighbridges, structures and containers for the receipt of separate waste streams for different types of vehicles and customers, sorting, handling and storage of different waste streams, transport of various recyclables/materials/wastes from the site and staff, mobile plant and equipment.

By Andrew VIVIAN