General News
8 November, 2025
Blaze forces waste into landfill
A BLAZE that destroyed a waste processing plant in Cairns in January is forcing Mareeba Shire Council to dump thousands of tonnes of rubbish into landfill and, according to authorities, there is no alternative solution in sight.
Around 15,000 tonnes of waste from Mareeba Shire Council and Tablelands Regional Council now has to be dumped into the Springmount landfill every year, while Cairns Regional Council is sending between 1,300 and 1,400 tonnes of waste every week, brought up the Kuranda Range by around 22 trucks a day.
TRC did not use the Bedminster processing plant, dumping more than 7000 tonnes a year into Springmount in the last financial year, but for Mareeba Shire, the absence of a processing plant means that instead of sending 280 tonnes a month into landfill, that figure is now around 700 tonnes a month.
The situation will remain until an alternative can be found, but according to Cairns Regional Council, “while technologies for waste treatment continue to evolve, there are no clear solutions that minimise waste to landfill economically, reliably and at the scale to support a city of Cairns’ size”.
“Development of new technology solutions has also been impacted by uncertainty in the regulatory environment, particularly in respect to plastics and waste levies,” a spokesperson said.
“Council is continuing to work cooperatively with the State Government to investigate our options in respect to longer term optimal waste management solutions as the regulatory environment and technology evolves.”
Mareeba residents also do not have a kerbside recycling service, relying on people to take their recyclables to local transfer stations, but it does provide a buyback shop to assist with the reuse of many items and sends around 11 tonnes of recyclables to the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Cairns every month.
TRC sent 7093 tonnes of recyclables – collected through its fortnightly kerbside service and from transfer stations – to MRF last financial year.
