Regional Waste and Resource Recovery Management Plans for Darling Downs and South West Queensland

Challenge

Local governments in regional and remote Australia face enormous challenges dealing with waste management. Concepts like circular economy often lack meaning when residents have only the most basic waste facilities and face high transport costs. Many Local Councils across the Darling Downs and South West Queensland required support to help identify a series of actions to be taken at a regional scale and for individual councils to improve waste and resource recovery outcomes.

Solution

Our team managed the development of a regional waste plan that included two sub-regional plans for the Darlings Downs and South West Regions of Queensland. These areas cover more than 500,000 km2 and include some of the most remote communities in Australia as well as the major centres of Charleville, Roma, St George, Toowoomba, Warwick, and Dalby.

The project involved visiting all 12 Councils including those in the far west of the state, Balonne, Bulloo, Maranoa, Murweh, Paroo and Quilpie Councils and those in the Darling Downs, Goondiwindi, Lockyer Valley, South Burnett, Southern Downs, Toowoomba and Western Downs Regional Councils, to hear council’s concerns first-hand and visit their waste management facilities. A series of workshops were also undertaken to initially define challenges and opportunities, to identify, refine and select preferred options, and to identify a pathway for implementation.

Impact

The final waste plans set out a long-term and co-ordinated path for action and collaboration across councils to support the planning for and investment in waste and resource recovery infrastructure and non-infrastructure solutions in the sub-regions.

The plans included education as a primary focus, to promote better outcomes for communities, including the benefits of getting recycling right.

The waste plans will be used to support requests for funding and assistance from the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments.