Last week I found this really curious tip voucher from the City of Greater Geelong (COGG), apparently to apologise for a rise in landfill costs.
“The Federal Government’s GST and carbon tax and the State Government imposed EPA levy – which has gone up again – have caused tip fees to increase. In fact, state and federal fees account for just under 60% of the fee you’re charged at the gate.”
The GST? To my knowledge, the rate and base of the Goods and Services Tax has not changed since it was introduced 13 years ago. How the GST has therefore caused a sudden increase in the cost of taking a load of rubbish to the tip is kind of baffling.
The carbon price? There have been lots of warnings from the ACCC towards organisations claiming the carbon price is the reason for price increases. I don’t know how the carbon price affects the chain of events when it comes to landfill, so I won’t make a positive or negative assessment of that claim, despite it seeming to be a dubious claim.
The EPA levy? According to the EPA website, the price per tonne has gone up only $4.80 since last year.
In 2012-2013 it was $48.40 per tonne, and in 2013-2014 it was $53.20. That’s the cost to the council for dumping an entire tonne of waste into a landfill.
I don’t know about you, but the last time I did a tip run, I didn’t take an entire tonne there. I suggest I’d have to do 200 tip runs before I got to an entire tonne.
Or about $0.02 a run, based on the $4.80 increase.
This sounds like a complete load of codswallop.