Eurobodalla Council suggest that, in regards to waste management, that they "develop pricing structures that reflect real life cycle and environmental costs and recognise pricing encourages or discourages consumer use and behaviours. These include water, sewer, trade waste and waste charging".
They advise that the Eurobodalla Waste Management Charge applies to all properties and covers the costs associated with providing and maintaining Council’s tips, waste transfer stations, waste minimisation programs, and general tip maintenance for waste not collected from the kerbside service.
Waste charges will increase by 1.7% to $324.35 per annum for a typical household that has access to the kerbside garbage, recycling and green waste collections.
It is at the discretion of each Council as to how much they chose to increase this fee per year.
Eurobodalla Council chose to increase the fee for 2022/2023 by 1.7% matching the increasing in the General Fund rate.
While this increase is considered low in comparision to other councils across the state the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal was asked to consider setting a maximum increase rate per annum, as they already do with the General Fund.
Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal have released their Final Report on
Domestic Waste Management (DWM) charges saying:
"Today we released our Final Report on our review of how we exercise our functions relating to DWM annual charges.
"In the context of the NSW Office of Local Government’s (OLG’s) regulatory role and commitment to its recommended regulatory approach for DWM annual charges, we have decided not to implement a limit by which councils can increase their DWM annual charges (a ‘waste peg’). We also recognise the challenges and uncertainty councils face in the DWM sector, particularly as they implement the NSW Waste and Sustainable Materials Strategy 2041.
"At this stage, we consider it is not in the interests of ratepayers, councils or the environment to implement a waste peg. We instead recommend OLG implement its regulatory approach to provide updated guidance to councils and carry out targeted investigation of councils whose DWM annual charges may be unjustifiably high. We also encourage improved transparency and effective community engagement on DWM annual charges and services".
Unlike Council's current practice of inflating our water and sewer rates so as to return a dividend to the General Fund it appears that the same increases can be applied by Council to recover expenses and to, as their policy states: "develop pricing structures that reflect real life cycle and environmental costs and recognise pricing encourages or discourages consumer use and behaviours. These include water, sewer, trade waste and waste charging".
