Trackable waste landfilled
Key Finding
Solid and sludge wastes continue to be the highest category of waste being landfilled in Queensland, accounting for about 64% of all trackable waste to landfill.
Queensland's waste tracking laws regulate the transport of environmentally significant waste. Trackable wastes are regulated wastes generated from commercial and industrial activities and are listed in Schedule 11 of the Environmental Protection Regulation 2019.
Waste generators, waste transporters and waste receivers have specific obligations when handling regulated waste and trackable wastes, to ensure regulated wastes are appropriately transported and managed and do not cause environmental harm.
In the 2018–19 financial year, about 363,760 tonnes of trackable regulated waste was landfilled in Queensland.
Over the past 4 years, the volume of waste disposed to landfill has fluctuated significantly. While this may be attributed to community and industry response in anticipation of the introduction of the Queensland waste levy on 1 July 2019, manual data verification errors are likely to have also contributed.
The largest amounts of trackable waste disposed to landfill were in the waste category of ‘solid and sludge wastes requiring special handling’. This includes:
- asbestos
- filter cake
- fly ash
- residues from waste treatment/disposal operations
- encapsulated/chemical fixed wastes.
More information:
Relevant Sustainable Development Goals’ targets
Download data from Queensland Government data
Metadata
Tonnage of trackable waste landfilled under disposal code D1 prescribed in Schedule 17 of the Environmental Protection Regulation 2019 for each period from 2016–2017; 2017–2018 and 2018–2019, by waste description and category. Due to the manual verification requirements associated with the receipt and processing of paper waste tracking certificates and a current processing backlog, the data used for these figures is based on an incomplete data set. Consequently, assumptions have been made to draw conclusions from the data, including weight conversion.