Skip man slams high waste fees

Ron Kramer is unhappy with the council increasing fees for dumping waste.

Mike Knott

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• Warning on waste dumps

THE operator of a skip bin business says he can no longer absorb the Bundaberg Regional Council's waste dump fee increases and will have to pass them on to his customers.

But the council says the increase is necessary because costs are going up, and fees at Bundaberg are so cheap operators from as far away as Rockhampton are travelling to the city to dump their waste.

Ron Kramer, of Bundaberg Aussie Bins, said the latest increase, to be introduced on September 27, was 36% on the previous charge.

Mr Kramer said the charge to dump waste at the tip was going from $5.50 a cubic metre to $7.50.

“Over the past three years it's gone from $3.50 to $7.50 – that's more than double,” he said.

“That's what's upset me, every year they keep jamming us 30%.”

Mr Kramer said most of his business was building sites, and he took 15,000 to 20,000 cubic metres of rubbish a year to the Bundaberg tip.

“No one in the world can absorb that sort of figure,” he said.

“At the end of the day I can't take a $20,000 cut in what I get paid.”

Mr Kramer said he absorbed the increase last year but could not afford to do so this year.

He said a $35 a tonne fee would be charged by the state government from next year.

Council health and environmental services director Greg Savage said operating costs were going up.

“Things like fuel and wages are obvious but less obvious are things like environmental compliance and workplace health and safety improvements and systems,” he said.

Mr Savage said a cost analysis showed why trucks were coming from Rockhampton or Gladstone to dump waste here.

“A semi trailer fully laden with mixed general waste comes into one of our facilities at $325. In Rockhampton they would pay $1580, in Gladstone $2860 and in Fraser Coast $1810,” he said.

Mr Savage said Bundaberg had to operate on a full cost pricing and recovery basis.

He said Bundaberg would be moving to charging a price per tonne in line with the state government as soon as it could install weighbridges.