Community & Business
2 July, 2025
Ratepayers losing patience
Ratepayers using the Greenmount Waste Management Facility will be disappointed to learn that the Toowoomba Regional Council 2025/26 budget, handed down last week, includes no major funding for the facility.
Toowoomba Regional Council Waste Portfolio spokesperson, Cr Melissa Taylor confirmed with On Our Selection News that no whole scale upgrades are planned for the waste facility in Council’s 2025/26 capital program.
Development of the site in 2024 promised a much improved service but many ratepayers are now complaining that disposal of domestic waste is more difficult than ever.
The Greenmount facility provides individual areas for disposal of wastes such as oils, plastics, batteries, paints and other toxic items and these are working well however, disposal of domestic waste seems to be the major complaint.
Wet weather makes access to the bins for domestic rubbish a walk through mud mixed with any rubbish that has fallen out of the bins, or items people cannot lift into the bins.
Some ratepayers are asking why Council couldn’t have provided some bitumen or concrete if only on a temporary basis until the final stage is completed.
The other major complaint of ratepayers using the facility is why the bins for domestic rubbish could not have been be placed on a lower level.
At the moment getting a full wheelie bin into the big steel containers requires a difficult lift up into the bin.
While this is manageable for fit, younger users, some older residents find the lift difficult - even impossible.
A ratepayer from Hodgson Vale remarked than when the Greenmount site was closed for development they used the Wellcamp facility where rubbish was dumped down into a container and now they find using the Greenmount site a real backward step having to lift rubbish up into the bins.
Cr Taylor said Council has allocated the majority of its waste capital budget to the vertical expansion project at the Toowoomba Waste Management Centre to ensure that waste is disposed in accordance with State Government’s legislative requirements.
“Some minor improvements are planned at Greenmount for the temporary transfer station over the coming months to improve functionality and all weather conditions until such time as Council’s Waste Strategy and Waste Infrastructure Plan review is completed” Cr Taylor said.
“That review will determine waste management priorities for the next five years including facility upgrades.”
“As part of this review, Council recently undertook extensive community consultation to understand the community’s views around waste management and waste facilities,” Cr Taylor said.
“It is anticipated that the review will inform priorities for the 2026/27 capital program and future years.”
Council’s website has outlined the plan and reasons behind the redevelopment at Greenmount.
“Waste transfer facilities are a cleaner waste management solution than landfill, improving the public experience when visiting the waste facility, reducing the impacts to the community associated with landfill activity and ensuring environmental compliance,” the website says.
“Storage of waste is in bulk bins before being transported to landfill locations off site.
“This process reduces the extent of odour, dust, and animal/rodent control required.
“Litter prevention controls ensure windblown litter from the facility is prevented from entering drains.”
Council’s proposed plan is certainly a giant step in the right direction but the issue worrying ratepayers using the Greenmount facility is whether Council is able to finish development of the facility sooner rather than later.
In the meantime ratepayers are losing patience with the facility in its present form.
