'Not a waste of money': Authority to be dissolved after decade of issues

Two Western Australian councils have reached an in-principle agreement to dissolve a joint waste authority with a troubled history of environmental breaches.

Compliance issues at waste facilities have cost ratepayers millions of dollars in remediation.

The future of staff, management and operations at the waste authority is yet to be determined.

The troubled regional waste authority responsible for the collapse of Western Australia's first food organics and garden organics (FOGO) system is being dissolved.

The Bunbury Harvey Regional Council (BHRC) was in charge of operating two waste facilities, including the FOGO processing facility which began in 2013.

Banksia Road Organics Processing Facility near Dardanup, 180 kilometres south of Perth, closed indefinitely in late 2024 due to high levels of contamination in breach of composting standards.

The closure resulted in the South West's green-bin waste being sent straight to landfill.

City of Bunbury and Shire of Harvey have now made an in-principle agreement to disband the joint waste management authority.

Some of the South West councils have decided to continue to send their FOGO to landfill, while others have taken up a state government subsidy to have the waste trucked to the Perth processing facility.

In a joint statement, both councils said they had agreed BHRC's governance model was no longer financially, operationally or environmentally sustainable.

Bunbury Mayor Jaysen Miguel said the dissolution did not amount to a failure.

The future for the staff and management of the waste authority is yet to be decided.

Both councils will now create a draft transition plan which is expected to be finalised early next year.

Financial reports show South West ratepayers have poured $14.7 million into BHRC's operations since 2022, when regulatory scrutiny began mounting over its operations.

In 2022, the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) shut down on-site landfilling at BHRC's other waste facility, the Stanley Road Waste Management Facility near Australind.

The regulator raised concerns about the "unacceptable" risk to human and environmental health from full and unlined landfill cells leaching contaminants into the surrounding area.

Both councils paid a combined $7.7 million in 2022/23 towards operating costs and remediation at Stanley Road tip to stop further contamination.

The Stanley Road tip has since operated as a household waste transfer and drop-off station.

The waste authority again got into trouble in 2023 for storing 15,000 used mattresses, creating an "extreme fire risk".

In November 2025, both councils agreed to contribute $2 million to remove a 20,000-tonne stockpile of contaminated FOGO waste at the Banksia Road site.

BHRC chairperson Wendy Dickinson defended the millions of dollars spent on remediation.

"The funding that has been put in by the member councils has been used to meet compliance issues, which we have been in the process of addressing and continuing to do," she said.

Ms Dickinson said the dissolution was simply recognition of changing legislation, compliance requirements and infrastructure needs since the authority was established in 1990.

Former Bunbury councillor and deputy mayor Brendan Kelly said the waste authority had been a "black hole" for ratepayer money.

"Both of those councils have been bleeding money over the last decade on trying to manage their waste, and they're not getting anywhere," he said.

"Harvey and Bunbury need to get themselves together and do not leave the room until they have a well-thought-out plan," he said.

"There's no point in just saying, 'too hard'. That's not the solution."

The former councillor said the problems at BHRC were symptomatic of a much wider failure to plan for the South West's waste-management needs.

"Successive state governments have kicked the can down the road when it comes to waste management in the South West."

He said the region's councils needed to work alongside the state government to develop a centralised, long-term waste-management strategy.

The WA local government minister has been contacted for comment.