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Have your say

Transfer station changes

Keeping the focus on improved resource recovery.

Airial view of a transfer station.

Project overview

Upon the February 2021 Councillor resolution, opening hours at the Bermagui waste transfer station were immediately increased to seven-days-a-week. This is to accommodate extra demand that came from the Cobargo tip closure due to bushfire damage.

The resolution also mapped out the following changes to the shire’s waste transfer stations:

Eden and Bermagui: both these sites will be developed to improve onsite resource recovery, taking pressure off the shire’s landfill site at the Central Waste Facility. The Eden site will eventually join Bermagui in providing a seven-day-a-week service upon closure of smaller sites at Candelo and Wallagoot.

Merimbula: organics processing will be moved to a different location. General waste drop-off and resource recovery facilities will remain. The Merimbula site will eventually join Bermagui and Eden in providing a seven-day-a-week service upon closure of smaller sites at Candelo and Wallagoot.

Bemboka: this site will remain open for general waste drop-off resource recovery.

Cobargo: due to extensive damage during the Black Summer bushfires, this site will remain closed. Services will be replaced through expanding rural bin collections and expanding the Bermagui waste transfer station opening times to seven-days-a-week.

Candelo and Wallagoot: these smaller sites will eventually close, but not before larger sites in Merimbula and Eden become seven-day-a-week facilities.

Central Waste Facility: this will remain the shire’s main commercial access site. No public access.

Funding

The funding for this project will be provided by Bega Valley Shire Council.  All rateable assessments in the Bega Valley Shire pay a Waste Management Charge to cover the cost of waste management services including: operation and maintenance of transfer stations and landfills, delivery of waste minimisation programs, and rehabilitation of legacy landfill sites.

Council’s Waste Strategy Recycling our Future focusses on various waste management strategies aimed at diverting waste from landfill through waste minimisation and resource recovery. In February 2021, Council made a commitment to achieving the initiatives of the strategy, by resolving to upgrade existing waste transfer stations and invest in resource recovery and waste processing infrastructure.

Aside from site upgrades, a 30-year financial model for waste services also identifies the cost for remediation of more than 20 legacy landfill sites, and an expansion of the existing kerbside collection service to rural landholdings. Increases to waste charges are a reflection of our community’s ambition to provide a sustainable future for waste services.

Connection to Council's Community Strategic Plan

This project is connected to numerous outcomes in Council’s Community Strategic Plan. These include: Sustainable long-term service delivery, innovative approach to waste management, minimise waste to landfill, increase recycling and resource recovery, environmental protection, minimise public place litter.

Contact:

Joley Vidau
Waste Strategy Coordinator
Bega Valley Shire Council
Email: waste@begavalley.nsw.gov.au

Timeline of works


  • 2022/2023

    Hydrological assesments of Eden and Bermagui waste transfer stations.

  • 2023/2026

    Initial works for Remediation Action Plans, plus seeking departmental approvals for identified works.

  • 2026/2028

    Project delivery of upgraded Bermagui waste transfer station.

  • 2027/2029

    Project delivery of upgraded Eden waste transfer station.

Frequently Asked Questions


Keeping all existing waste facilities open is not environmentally sustainable or economically viable. We need fewer sites, each with seven-day community access and a greater capacity to accommodate waste diversion, reuse and recovery. Under the proposed changes, for most of the community, a trip to a resource recovery centre will take no longer than 30 minutes.

By consolidating our public waste facilities into improved sites, we will be able to offer better resource recovery, taking waste that would normally end up in landfill and giving it a new upcycled or recycled life. All improved sites will open seven days a week, improving on the sporadic opening hours of some current facilities. The provision of a kerbside pick-up service and bin banks for rural customers will be a big improvement for people who currently rely on weekly visits to the tip to dispose of their waste.

Residents who are getting a new kerbside or bin bank collection service are already paying the annual Waste Management Charge, so the extra costs are the pickup charges. The 2021-22 annual Waste Management charge is $124.93 (which is paid by all residents even if they don't have a collection service). The annual cost for weekly collection of a landfill (red) rural bin is $223.10, and the annual cost for fortnightly recycle (yellow) bin collection is $100.07. Broken down this adds up to $6.30 a week. Waste charges are set by the Local Government Act, and are mandatory once a service is available.

The decision to adopt the proposed Waste Facility Consolidation and Modernisation Project was made by your elected Councillors who considered feedback from the community.

Part of the project's community information program was to ask for your questions on how the proposed project could affect your day-to-day handling and disposal of waste. We provided this opportunity through a range of face-to-face information sessions throughout the Shire in 2020, and ongoing via this online portal.

If you have questions about a change to waste disposal and resource recovery in your area, where your nearest tip will be, or any other question about what these proposed changes could mean for you, this is a great place to start.

You can email waste@begavalley.nsw.gov.au


Waste Management: looking forward

 

© Bega Valley Shire Council 2025

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