Waste levies and tip charges in NSW, Victoria, the ACT and the NT

What a levy is for

EPA Victoria says the main purpose of the levy is to reduce waste, by encouraging the people who make it to find ways to create less and send less to landfill. The levy is not a skip hire price. It is charged to the facility that receives the waste, and none of the pages below sets what a hire business charges you.

Levies also pay for things. NSW funds its Community Recycling Centres, permanent drop-off centres for common household problem wastes, from the waste levy. Band 4 covers those drop-off programs.

New South Wales

Where it applies

The NSW levy applies in two areas. The NSW EPA’s page lists the council areas in each, with a map: Inner West, Sydney and Newcastle, for example, are in the Metropolitan Levy Area, and Byron, Lismore and Tweed are in the Regional Levy Area.

Which rate applies

The rate follows the waste as much as the place. On the NSW EPA’s table, waste from the Metropolitan Levy Area pays the metropolitan rate wherever in NSW it is received. Waste from the Regional Levy Area pays the metropolitan rate if it is received in the metropolitan area, and the regional rate if it is received in the regional area or anywhere else in NSW. Waste from the rest of NSW pays the metropolitan rate if it is received in the metropolitan area and the regional rate if it is received in the regional area.

The NSW EPA says the 2026–27 rates rose in line with the Consumer Price Index, as the Waste Regulation provides. Lower concessional rates apply to a few named materials, such as virgin excavated natural material.

Who pays it

A disposal facility inside either area pays the levy on all the waste it receives, and one outside them pays it on waste that comes from either area. A processing, recovery or storage facility takes on a levy liability when waste arrives, if the facility is in either area or the waste comes from one, but its operator can claim a deduction once the waste leaves for lawful recycling, reuse or disposal. Making sure the payments reach the EPA on time is the occupier’s responsibility.

Victoria

In Victoria, a levy must be paid on all waste received at a landfill, whether municipal, industrial or priority waste. Landfill operators report the waste they receive, and the levy they owe, in a statement to EPA Victoria each quarter. The rates are set in fee units under the Environment Protection Act 2017, and the Treasurer of Victoria sets the value of a fee unit each financial year.

Municipal or industrial

The difference matters most outside the city, where the two rates part ways. Municipal waste comes from municipal or residential activities, including waste collected by or for a council, but not industrial waste. EPA Victoria’s examples include household rubbish, kerbside and hard waste collections, and residential waste that residents take to a landfill themselves.

Renovation waste is another matter. EPA Victoria says most construction and demolition waste is industrial waste. And municipal waste that goes through a resource recovery facility before it reaches a landfill is classed as industrial, where a higher levy may apply. The municipal levy still applies if records show the waste was collected from a municipal source.

Priority waste

Riskier waste pays more: priority waste categories are set mainly by the risk to human health and the environment and the potential for mismanagement, and the higher the risk, the higher the levy.

Canberra and Darwin: charges at the gate

For the two territories, the official pages behind this band describe what the tip charges, not a levy, so that is what follows.

Australian Capital Territory

The ACT Government says its waste charges are meant to encourage more recycling, through a user-pays system that reflects the true costs of disposal. Some materials attract a fee and others do not; the full list is in its waste and recycling fees brochure. Registered charities can apply each year for an exemption from landfill fees, by 30 May.

Darwin

At the City of Darwin’s Shoal Bay facility, commercial loads are charged by weight and by type of item, and a business without an account pays for its load at the weighbridge, by card, cheque or EFTPOS; no cash is taken. The council suggests separating recyclables from general waste before you go, to save at the weighbridge.

Sorting before the gate

Darwin’s advice to sort before the weighbridge is the plainest link between what goes into a load and what it costs at the other end. Band 4 covers what to take out first, and band 3 explains how a hire price must be shown.