Specialist Waste Disposal

Livingstone Shire Council operates and maintains a number of Waste Facilities including:

  • Landfills - a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial.
  • Transfer Stations - a processing site for the temporary disposal of waste.
  • Recycling Drop-Off Stations – a temporary site for household recyclable items.

Only certain Waste Facilities accept hazardous waste, green waste and provide the mulched green waste loading service. You can find out what is accepted at each location here. 

Free disposal of recyclables, metal items, batteries and oil is available at Council's Waste Facilities.

A full list of the Waste Facilities Fees and Charges can be viewed here.

  • Contact us for advice on disposing these items at a landfill or transfer station.

    • Regulated waste (including Asbestos) and liquid waste
    • Abrasive blasting materials
    • Waste as a result of fire (incineration)
    • Soils from land rehabilitation and remediation
    • Household or industrial chemicals
    • Medical waste
    • Paper sludge
    • Chemically impregnated timber
    • Carpet
    • Quantities of fire/smoke detectors (above 10 units)
    • Paints and Varnishes - These items cannot be disposed of at Council’s Waste Facilities but they can be taken to the Paintback facility at the Rockhampton Regional Council Landfill site at Lakes Creek Road, Rockhampton.  Visit paintback.com.au to see the full range of acceptable and unacceptable products for disposal.
    • Fire extinguishers which have a white band around them or are all red (meaning a water fire extinguisher) can be dropped off for free at the Yeppoon Landfill. We do not take the blue banded or yellow fire extinguishers, these need to go back to where they were purchased from.
    • LPG Gas bottles only, 9.0kg or less in size can be dropped off at the Yeppoon Landfill or a Transfer Station. All other gas bottles need to be returned to where they were purchased from.
  • It is the responsibility of all property owners to get asbestos to an approved place of disposal.

    Under no circumstances should people leave asbestos on footpaths or roadsides.

    Asbestos can only be disposed of at Yeppoon Landfill.

    Asbestos is a regulated waste and cannot be disposed of in rubbish bins, recycling bins or at Council’s transfer stations. Not all landfills can accept asbestos waste. Download fact sheet removal and transport of asbestos containg material (Domestic) or fact sheet removal and transport of asbestos containing material (Commercial) for more information on the correct disposal of asbestos. 

  • Used electronic equipment contains non-renewable resources such as plastic and precious metals including gold, silver, platinum, nickel, zinc, aluminium and copper. Some can be toxic to the environment if placed in landfill, like lead, mercury, phosphorus and cadmium. These substances can leak into groundwater, contaminate the soil, and enter the food chain. When electronic items are sent to Landfill, the valuable resources that were used to make those products are lost forever. This means that new electronic items will continue to require mining for the non-renewable resources they contain.

    Almost 99% of the components that make up a computer can be recycled. The metal is 100% recyclable, glass 99% recyclable, and plastic (apart from very small particles) 100% recyclable. Older style televisions, containing cathode ray tubes, contain up to 4 kg of lead and other materials that can be hazardous to the environment if not recycled responsibly.

    More than 90% of the components found in a mobile phone can be recycled, but there are around 22 million stored unused in cupboards and drawers around Australia. If they were all recycled, the greenhouse benefits created would be equal to planting 114,000 trees and the aluminium recovered would be enough to make 1.8 million cans. 

    Did you know?

    • There are at least 30 million mobile phone subscribers currently in Australia.
    • There are more than 23 million unused phones hiding in drawers, cupboards and garages across Australia, that’s one old phone for every Australian.
    • That’s the equivalent of 2,450 tonnes of metals, minerals, plastic and glass – things that the planet desperately needs us to recycle.
    • The average person replacing their mobile phone every 18-24 months.
    • Mobiles should never be thrown out. They are not biodegradable, and may contain some potentially environmentally hazardous material.
    • Recycling 50,000 handsets can replace the need to mine 110 tonne of gold ore, 123 tonne of silver bearing ore or 11 tonne of copper sulphide ore.
    • When recycled, over 90% of the materials in mobile phones can be recovered and used as raw materials for new products. The materials recovered can be used to make everything from plastic fence posts to stainless steel products.

    Where to recycle your old mobiles:

    • Livingstone Shire Council Customer Service Centre, Yeppoon Town Hall, Normanby Street, Yeppoon

    Recycling can also offer cost savings through the avoidance of landfill fees for heavy items such as white goods, and reduced energy bills through the removal of old, inefficient appliances.

  • Greenwaste loads are accepted at the following waste facilities:

    • Cawarral
    • Emu Park
    • Marlborough
    • The Caves
    • Yeppoon

    Domestic Loads of Greenwaste brought into Council Waste Facilities

    Green Waste and clean timber are mulched at the Yeppoon Landfill and Emu Park Waste Facilities. The green waste and timber from other waste facilities are transported back to the Yeppoon Landfill for mulching. The mulch is used beneficially in on-site operations (such as erosion control).

    Commencing as of 1 September 2021, all domestic self-haul green waste loads will be charged a transaction fee. This will offset some of the costs of maintaining and mulching all green waste at Waste Facilities throughout our Shire. These costs are in the vicinity of $400,000.00 per year which is for the processing of greenwaste disposed of at the Yeppoon Landfill and Waste Transfer Stations by our residents. The processing includes pushing the stockpiles of greenwaste, grinding of the greenwaste into mulch and managing of mulch so it doesn’t catch on fire.

    Council has introduced a “User Pays” system rather than increasing the rates for all of the residents in our Shire, so that the cost is fairly distributed to those who use this service.

    Residents who are concerned about the fee are encouraged to plant native species in their yards which require less maintenance (hence less greenwaste to be disposed of) and supports the local fauna in our community.

    • Alternatively residents are able to use 1 Voucher to dispose of greenwaste.
    • Consider using a compost bin in your yard.

    Commencing as of 2 August 2021, there will be no fee for the sale of self-loaded Standard mulch but Fine Grade mulch will still attract a fee.

    Commercial Greenwaste Charges

    All Commercial Operators will be charged to dispose greenwaste. A full list of the applicable Fees and Charges can be viewed here. 

    Commercial Operators include:

    • Lawn Mowing / Yard Maintenance Contractors
    • Garden Tidy Bag Contractors
    • Tree Loppers
    • All other Commercial Operators

    ​Supply and Loading of Mulch

    Council mulch is produced to two grades:

    • Standard (processed once); and
    • Fine (processed twice).

    Fees and charges for the supply and loading of mulch can be found here at Fees and Charges.

    • All vehicles will be loaded to the legal limit - please do NOT request overloading
    • All loads are to be tarped - NO exceptions

    Free Loading Schedule:

     Emu Park

    As at 12 March 2024, mulch is not available
    from Emu Park until further notice

     Yeppoon

    1st Tuesday and
    2nd Saturday of each month

    8.00am - 11.00am
    8.00am - 11.00am

  • A large amount of solar panels have been received at Yeppoon Landfill in previous years. The State Government introduced solar rebates back in 2008 and the life span of many panels are now coming to an end.

    Due to the increase of the amount of solar panels being disposed of, Council has introduced a fee to cover the costs of transport to South Australia which is currently the only plant recycling these items in Australia.

    The recycling plant reuses the frames and recycles the glass, depending on what happens to be wrong with the panels disposed.

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