It was with great relief at the 19th June extraordinary council ‘budget’ meeting that the majority of councillors walked back from the brink of forcing a regional landfill (“mega dump”) on the Blakebrook community. What a relief! What a victory! Let’s celebrate!
At this meeting, the 2026-2027 budget included a ~$1.3 million line item to progress a regional landfill at Blakebrook. This had never been voted on by the community, nor is it a headline item in our adopted waste strategy which prioritises waste avoidance, reuse and recycling before landfill.
Jumping straight to being the regional dumping ground without prior dialogue with the community nor a social licence doesn’t cut it!
My heartfelt gratitude and congratulations to the local Blakebrook and wider Lismore communities who united, organised and campaigned against this mega-stupid idea. It’s not completely dead in the water – just “paused” in the words of the Mayor – but it buys us time and a reprieve to rest, consolidate and reflect upon the question: should Lismore be the landfill capital of the Northern Rivers?
Clearly I think not, and have been vocal about this from day one. Lismore has always prided itself on being innovative, progressive and forward thinking in the waste space, having been early adopters of vermiculture (worm farm), organics processing, recycling and phytocapping.
A series of mishaps, inadequte resourcing and mismanagement at the Wyrallah Road waste facility has seen our waste operations run down, climaxing with the 2022 flood which saw our newly built landfill cell flooded and waste strewn across the landscape. A tragedy on all accounts which resulted in us trucking waste to Queensland for the last four years.
Thankfully this has finally been rectified and we are landfilling our own waste again. But we can’t landfill forever while waste generators keep creating products and packaging that can’t be recycled and leave a toxic legacy which taxpayers have to pay for.
Councils are at the bottom of the waste food chain, being forced to deal with end-of-life waste problems mostly caused by multinational corporations who take no responsibility for the products or packaging they create. Ratepayers and taxpayers can’t keep footing the bill for waste that is predominantly outside the control of end users.
To address the cause rather than the symptom, we need proper cradle-to-grave laws (“product stewardship laws”) which makes manufacturers, importers and product creators responsible for the products and packaging they produce.
Until this occurs, councils will never be able to financially deal with the volume, type and toxicity of products and waste being generated.
This requires a whole of government response at local, state and federal levels. This is something which as a Greens Councillor – with policy and advocacy at all levels of representation – I am proud to be part of.
Intergenerational justice and ecological sustainability requires us to address the waste problem once and for all. We can’t keep building landfills and think that burying our problems out of sight makes the problem go away. As with all waste and toxic products we’ve generated throughout history, it comes back to bite us in the end.
Let’s not continue this theme to our ultimate demise. Instead let’s unite, organise and advocate for the clean, green and renewable future we so strongly need and desire for health and happiness.