Education, compliance activities, and the introduction of a domestic waste user pays system: Integrated impacts on illegal dumping and recycling activities in the Mackay City Council municipality

Mackay City Council introduced a Domestic Waste User Pays System in late 2006. The rationale behind this decision was to reduce waste being sent to landfill and to recover some of the costs associated with waste management. A User Pays System involves the costs associated with the management of waste being borne by those persons who generated the waste.

Community opposition to the introduction of Domestic Waste Fees included perceptions that illegal dumping would increase within the municipality, that there would be a rise in recycling contamination, and that residents would be unfairly impacted upon socially and environmentally. This research project attempts to identify any impacts on illegal dumping and recycling activities following the introduction of a Domestic Waste User Pays System at Mackay City Council Waste Disposal Facilities. It also discusses the effectiveness of associated Waste Education Programs and Environmental Compliance Activities, to determine whether the initial community opposition to the fees was in fact justified.

In order to investigate the issues further, a large quantity of data were collected, including Council illegal dumping complaints data, recycling volumes data, recycling contamination data, and a large amount of literature and reports relating to the issues in general, and more specifically relating to the Mackay City Council Integrated Waste Management Strategy.