Council's waste facilities operate as per the schedules below except Good Friday and Christmas day.
Greenwaste is no longer be accepted at the Araluen or Majors Creek bin compounds. Greenwaste can be taken to the Braidwood Waste Transfer Facility at no cost.
These changes are being made due to the following risks created:
- Both of these facilities are close to existing dwellings. Greenwaste piles can spontaneously combust which may start a fire in the area.
- Risk of illegal dumping as the sites are unstaffed. There is no way to control what is placed in the greenwaste pile.
- The greenwaste areas do not have appropriate controls which may result in nutrients being washed into local watercourses.
- The greenwaste areas are unlikely to comply with relevant regulatory requirements.
Araluen Bin Compound on Dirty Butter Creek Road (operates as a bin compound only)
- Sunday and Monday 9am - 5pm (gates close at 4.45 pm)
Braidwood Waste Transfer Station on Bombay Road
- Friday 1pm - 4pm
- Saturday and Sunday 10am - 4.30pm
- Monday 1pm - 4pm
Braidwood Buy-Back Centre located at the Transfer Station on Bombay Road
Bungendore Waste Transfer Station on Tarago Road (including the Community Recycling Centre)
- Friday 12.30pm - 4.30pm
- Saturday and Sunday 8am - 4.30pm
- Monday 7am - 12 noon
Bungendore buy-back centre located at the transfer station on Tarago Road
Bywong Waste Transfer Station off Macs Reef Road
- Friday 2pm - 4.30pm
- Saturday and Sunday 8am - 4.30pm
- Monday 7.00 am - 11am
Captains Flat Waste Transfer Station on Captains Flat Road
- Saturday and Sunday 9am - 3pm (gates close at 2.45 pm)
- Monday 9am - 2pm
Majors Creek Bin Compound on Araluen Street
- Greenwaste can be taken to the Braidwood Waste Transfer Facility at no cost.
- Saturday and Sunday 8am - 5pm
Nerriga Tip on Endrick River Road
- Sunday - 8am - 12 noon
- Monday - 7am - 4pm
Queanbeyan Waste Minimisation Centre 5 Lorn Road (including the Community Recycling Centre)
- Monday - Friday 9.15am - 4.15pm
- Saturday and Sunday - 7.15am - 4.15pm
Material containing asbestos is not accepted at any of our facilities
A waste transfer station is a drop-off point or staging post for waste that is taken to a final disposal site. General household waste is taken to the Woodlawn Bioreactor outside Tarago. Household recycling material is taken to the material recovery facility at Hume in the ACT. Other collected materials are routinely transported from the site to an appropriate facility for recycling or reprocessing.
We ask that residents use card payments, to avoid the risks associated with handling cash for staff and customers. This includes payments at the buy-back centres .
What Can I Take to the Macs Reef Waste Transfer Station?
- Household waste (truck loads up to 2 tonne)
- Recycling
- Small buy-back items
- Engine oil (up to 40 litres)
- Mobile phones
- Electronic waste (computers and TVs).
What is not accepted at Macs Reef Waste Transfer Station?
- Greenwaste
- Construction and demolition waste
- Earth and fill
- Tyres
- Mattresses
- Car bodies
- White goods and large scrap metal
- Large items including furniture
- Asbestos
- Chemicals
- Dead animals
What is Accepted at the Macs Reef Buy-Back Centre?
Due to limited space and safety concerns, staff will only be accepting small items that fit on the shelving provided. Items are not to be placed on the ground. If staff consider the items are not suitable or too large, materials will need to be either disposed of in the waste bins (and appropriate fees paid) or taken to the Bungendore Resource Recovery Facility. Please note that assessment of the items by site staff will also occur at Bungendore.
What Can I Take to the Bungendore Waste Transfer Station?
Apart from general household waste, items accepted include:
- e-waste - computers, screen, TVs, printers, computer parts and peripherals only
- Greenwaste
- Construction and demolition waste
- Commercial waste
- Tyres
- Mattresses
- Car bodies
- White goods and scrap metal
- Large items including furniture
- Dead animals
- Paints
- Fire extinguishers
- Smoke detectors
- Gas bottles
- Cooking and motor oils
- All types of batteries
- Fluorescent tubes and e-waste
What is Accepted at the Bungendore Buy-Back Centre?
You can drop off items for resale at the buy-back centre. We are not always able to accept all goods due to limited storage space or lack of demand. It is at the discretion of staff if we accept them. Items must be of a reasonable quality so that we can resell them.
What is NOT Accepted at the Bungendore Buy-Back Centre?
We no longer accept electrical items at the buy-back centre.
Download the waste transfer station brochure here(PDF, 2MB).
Why do we need a waste transfer station when we have the tip?
The Braidwood Landfill has served the community well, however, times have changed and what was acceptable in the past is no longer the case. The site has substantial environmental shortcomings that make it expensive to operate and much harder to ensure environmental protection is maintained. Additionally, the existing site does not facilitate the appropriate separation of waste types.
What are the transfer station’s opening hours?
The Braidwood Transfer Station will be open during the following hours:
- Friday: 1-4 pm
- Saturday and Sunday: 10am to 4.30pm
- Monday: 1-4pm
- The Buy-Back building will be open on Sunday between 10am and 4pm
The transfer station will be closed on Good Friday and Christmas Day.
Why is the transfer station only open four days a week?
The Braidwood Waste Transfer Station opening hours are similar to those of the Bungendore and Bywong Transfer Stations. All three will operate four days a week - Friday to Monday. The Captains Flat Transfer Station operates three days a week – Saturday to Monday.
Waste transfer stations are more expensive to run than older landfills. Additional staff are required and therefore the costs increase if the hours are extended. The reduced opening hours are a cost saving measure for the community.
What can I take to the new transfer station?
Fees will apply for the following materials when brought to the waste transfer station:
- general household waste, non-recyclable
- mattresses
- tyres
The following materials will be accepted free of charge for residents with a past Tip Pass or proof of local residency :
- co-mingled recycling – cans, glass bottles and jars, plastic ridged containers, paper and cardboard, aluminium foil and foil containers, cartons
- drumMUSTER containers http://www.drummuster.org.au/container-recycling/eligible-containers/
- green waste – tree prunings, lawn clippings, garden material (no manufactured wood in green waste area)
- metals
- whitegoods
- motor oils
- e-waste – computers, screens, TVs printers, computer parts and peripherals only.
- batteries, paints, engine oil
Commercial waste 4.5 tonnes GVM and over will need to call in advance to make a time for delivery.
The list may change slightly over coming months as we fine tune how we operate the facility
We do not accept gas cylinders at the Braidwood Waste Transfer Station. These are accepted at the Bungendore and Queanbeyan Community Recycling Centres.
Where does all the waste go?
When you enter the transfer station, you will be directed to different areas of the site to dispose of different waste types. Each waste material will be sent to an appropriately licensed disposal or processing facility.
- Recycling will be transported to the ACT to the Materials Recovery Centre at Hume.
- General waste is taken to the Woodlawn Bioreactor for a fee.
- Mattresses are sent for a fee to Soft landing in ACT at Hume which is a not for profit organisation that recycles the components of the mattresses into different products.
- Batteries, Oils, gas bottles, paints, etc. are sent for recycling
- Metals are sent to metal recyclers
- Green waste is composted and reused
- drumMuster containers are recycled
- Tyres will be sent for a fee to be recycled at Tyre Cycle.
- E-Waste is recycled under the National TV and computer Recycling Scheme.
- Your useable items, if accepted, will be sold at the Buy Back Shop and hopefully someone will buy them and love them.
What will happen to the old Braidwood Tip and how will this be paid for?
Once the Braidwood Tip is closed the materials that can be recycled will be removed, and then a process of stabilising the grounds of the tip and remediating the site will commence. This will include capping the site with an appropriate impermeable material and placing a revegetation layer on top of the liner.
The Waste Program charge will fund the remediation.
Why are there fees at the new transfer station?
In order for Council to provide the community with efficient, lawful and environmentally responsible waste and recycling disposal options, Council has had to change the way it deals with waste. Waste and resource recovery services costs councils across Australia billions of dollars. Changes in the requirements, regulations and resale markets around waste have also increased costs to councils.
The cost to landfill is getting more and more expensive and recycling costs have also increased for councils.
When Palerang Council was formed in 2004, previous gate fee charges were dropped. With the closure of Bungendore Tip and replacement with a transfer station, fees were introduced to help cover associated costs. This will be the same for Braidwood Transfer Station.
To keep costs down for the community, council encourages residents to separate their waste into the different streams when planning to go to the transfer station.
If you have items that may be still useable try and give them away, have a garage sale, use social media swap and give away site or advertise for free on Gumtree.
If waste is not separated it will be charged as general waste. If it is separated or items that are reusable are accepted at the Buy Back Shop then this will reduce the fees considerably.
Fees will be dependent on how they have been separated and what quantities or types of waste.
Can we explain the different waste fees on rates notices?
Following is an explanation of the waste fees that appear on rates notices
Domestic Waste Management fee - this charge is for those residents with a bin collection service. Residents in Braidwood, Majors Creek and Araluen are charged this fee if Council collects their bins from the roadside (or if they have bins in the bin compound). The charge contributes to:
- Wages of operational and management staff
- Corporate overheads
- Loan repayments
- Insurance
- Depreciation
- Vehicle operational and maintenance costs
- Waste Contracts
- Purchase of bins and other assets
- Waste disposal fees
- Education activities
Landfills fee – The Landfills fee is applied to any property issued with a ‘tip pass’ within the former Palerang LGA. The charge covers the cost of disposing of waste at landfills within the former Palerang LGA. This cost is separated from the General Waste Charge following a ruling by the Australian Taxation Office. It is expected that this cost will be removed following closure of the remaining landfills in the Palerang LGA.
Waste Programs fee - the majority of residents in the former Palerang LGA pay a Waste Programs Charge (General Waste Charge). This charge partially funds the following components of Council’s waste management activities, with the remainder funded from gate fees:
- Design and construction costs for new facilities
- Wages of operational and management staff
- Corporate overheads
- Loan repayments
- Insurance
- Depreciation
- Vehicle operational and maintenance costs
- Waste Contracts
- Rehabilitation of closed landfills
- Maintenance of facilities
- Waste disposal fees
- Education activities
Will we still receive a tip pass?
The decision was taken not to issue new tip passes this year. Previous tip passes will still be honoured. If you have lost your tip pass, simply bring along something that identifies you and your property address to get the reduced fees (for example, rates notice, drivers licence or utility bill).
Are you going to remove the recycling bins in rural areas?
It is not expected that banks of bins provided for commingled recycling in more distant areas of the LGA will be removed.
Where is the new facility located, what does it look like, how do I find my way around?
The facility is located on Bombay Road. The facility is well sign posted and staff will be available to help you.
Commercial operators can apply for an account for our Waste Transfer Stations. Complete the online form below.
Click here to view form.
Waste Minimisation Centre located at 5 Lorn Road Queanbeyan is open for free drop off of domestic quantities of greenwaste and listed recyclables for QPRC residents only. Greenwaste products are also available for purchase.
- Businesses are not permitted to drop off recyclables at the Waste Minimisation Centre.
- Council staff have the authority to refuse items if deemed from a business. A fee is payable from businesses to drop off greenwaste products (see Fees and charges).
What can I take to the WAMI?
Residents only can drop off the following items for free:
- Garden prunings and clippings which are too much/ too large to fit into the greenwaste bin (no tree stumps, large root balls or widths over 200mm in diameter)
- Rigid plastic containers
- Glass bottles and jars
- Metal containers
- Paper and cardboard
- Used motor oil (domestic quantities up to 20 litres)
- Batteries
- Fluorescent globes
- Mobile phones
- Printer cartridges
- Paints
- Gas bottles
- Fire extinguishers
- Other oils
- Smoke detectors
Residents can also purchase shredded greenwaste suitable for use as garden mulch. Delivery of greenwaste can be arranged at a fee.
Donations of Greenwaste Products
Council provides greenwaste products to Queanbeyan schools and community groups which can provide evidence of their not for profit status. For further information and terms, contact Council’s Waste Minimisation Officer on: 6285 6246.
The NSW Government and the Commonwealth are jointly covering the clean-up costs of residential and eligible commercial properties destroyed in the NSW bushfires since 1 July 2019.
Laing O’Rourke Australia has been appointed as the managing contractor, responsible for managing the clean-up of properties across NSW, working with Public Works Advisory (PWA).
Impacted property owners who would like their property cleared need to register at Service NSW or call: 13 77 88.
Click here to view form.
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) requires us to publish pollution monitoring data for the Bungendore Resource Recovery Facility in accordance with the Protection of the Environment Legislation Amendment Act 2011 (POELA Act). The specific requirements for the publication of monitoring results are set out in s.66(6) of the POEO Act.
The latest pollution monitoring data for the Bungendore Resource Recovery Facility may be downloaded below.
Pollution Incident Response Management Plan
The EPA requires us to publish a pollution incident response management plan (PIRMP) for the Bungendore Resource Recovery Facility in accordance with the Protection of the Environment Legislation Amendment Act 2011 (POELA Act).
The latest PIRMP can be downloaded from the link below.
Bungendore Resource Recovery Facility PIRMP(PDF, 205KB)
Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Licences
The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) issues licences for the Bungendore Resource Recovery Facility. We have provided a link to the Licences below which are all on the EPA website.