Waste from NSW and Victoria is being transported into Queensland, with operators taking advantage of the state’s tariff-free dumping rules.
File photo.
An investigation by the ABC’s Four Corners program has discovered there is an organised network of waste operators and freight companies transporting up to 1 million tonnes of rubbish each year into Queensland via road and rail.
"The joke is, in the waste industry, that Queensland is the dumping capital of Australia," Four Corners reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna said.
"Send your stuff to Queensland: it's dirt cheap, and no one cares."
In NSW, the government charges companies $138 per tonne to dispose their waste. In Queensland, it costs nothing. It represents around $100 million in revenue lost to NSW Treasury, according to the ABC.
The dumpsites are in Ipswich, west of Brisbane.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has ruled out introducing a waste levy.
The investigation also unearthed the case of a large illegal dump on the banks of the Hawkesbury River in NSW.