The cost of dealing with waste: Baw Baw Shire contract for rubbish management nearly doubles to $7.4 million
An expanding recycling collection system and the state government's landfill levy is putting pressure on councils.
Jacob Wallace
January 13, 2026
Under a new contract for waste collection that begins in 2027, Baw Baw Shire will be paying almost double what they are paying now to dispose of the municipality's rubbish.
What happened: Baw Baw Shire council faces a significant cost increase in the future after it awarded a $7.4 million waste management contract to Solo Resource Recovery. The fee is nearly double the previous arrangement as state levies are also adding to the cost of landfill management.
Expensive commitment: At a council meeting in December, Councillor Suzanne Allen spoke in favour of awarding the contract, saying: “It’s not simply an operational contract but a commitment to safer practices, higher environmental standards and better value for our ratepayers.”
Allen noted the new contract will expand Baw Baw Shire’s waste collection system to materials like polystyrene, soft plastics, textiles, solar panels and even vapes.
🗣️ “These changes make sure our transfer stations keep pace with the fast evolving waste sector.”
Solo Resource Recovery, which already provides Baw Baw’s kerbside bin collection service, won a four-year contract worth $7.4 million, with first-year costs of $1.8 million – up from just under $1 million previously.
🗣️ Councillor Paul Pratt warned the budget impact was significant: "We've now got to find a million dollars extra per year in our budget to deliver this service from 2027 onwards."
“I understand we’ve got to award this, I just want us to understand as a community that it costs a lot of money to get rid of waste and we need to all make steps to try and improve that.”
Victoria’s landfill levy raises the pressure: In February 2020, the Victorian government set a target of diverting 80 percent of waste from landfills by 2030.
Baw Baw Shire Council's current landfill diversion rate is 54 percent, which falls short of the state’s 2025 target of 72 percent.
To motivate local governments to increase their landfill diversion rate the Victorian Government’s Environment Protection Authority imposed a mandatory charge per tonne of waste disposed at landfill sites in July 2025.
These landfill levies are increasing by 28 percent in 2025-26, adding over $52,000 to Baw Baw Shire’s waste collection costs.
