About waste & recycling

Waste management

Managing waste and protecting the environment is everybody’s responsibility. It's easy to lessen the impact our lives and actions have on the surrounding environment (the Great Barrier Reef, prestigious estuarine environments and rainforest habitats), by:

• Avoiding generating waste wherever possible.
• Reducing the amount of waste we collect in our lives.
• Reusing things that we have collected so they are not wasted as quickly.
• Recycling what we can.
• Disposing of what is left responsibly.

Local government

The main priority  of council is the collection of household waste and recycling (i.e. kerbside collections), street litter, waste delivered to council transfer stations, municipal parks and gardens waste, council office waste and a limited amount of commercial waste and recycling.

The management of waste and recycling is a major environmental issue, which currently has a high profile in all levels of Government’s policy agenda. Australia produces over 41 million tonnes of waste every year, and the key challenges are how we can reduce this level of waste and increase the level of recycling.

For further information, please view related documents on the service standards flyer or the complete version of water and waste's customer service standards and the environmental policy.

Cairns regional waste management strategy 2010-2015

The Waste Strategy sets out the principles, objectives, targets, programme areas and action plans for managing waste and recycling for the next five years and is designed to achieve the following objectives and targets:

High Level Objectives

• reduction of waste generation rates;
• improved awareness of waste as a resource and influencing behavioural change;
• improved resource recovery;
• improved recycling and composting;
• improved residual waste treatment and recovery; and
• minimisation of waste sent to landfill.

The strategy is made up of a high level strategy document accompanied by five background reports, and will guide the way we manage our waste over the next five years.  View the strategy document and reports here.

For further information please access related links.

Contributing to a sustainable region

Council's waste and recycling services aim to minimise waste disposal to landfill. We operate a materials recovery facility (MRF), eight waste transfer stations and a buyback shop. The waste and recycle facilities recycle and reuse materials such as:

• Garden waste
• Household waste
• Metals
• Recyclable materials - steel cans, aluminum cans, plastics, glass
• Paper and cardboard
• Reusable household items
• Reusable building materials