After 39 years of association with the Eastern Metropolitan Regional Council (EMRC), the City of Swan ended its membership on June 30, 2025.
The City is pursuing alternative waste disposal through the soon-to-be-completed Waste to Energy plant in East Rockingham, and will no longer rely on landfill as its primary means of waste disposal.
Withdrawing from the EMRC will allow the City to regain its equity investment, enabling these funds to be used for alternate community infrastructure projects.
The return of the City's equity will be determined by independent assessment as of June 30, 2025, with a payment to be made in accordance with the Establishment Agreement within the following two years.
Tanya Richardson, City of Swan Mayor, said that as a founding member of the EMRC in 1983, the City has long valued the efficiencies and economies of scale in waste management delivered by the EMRC.
"But the City's evolving waste management policy, with its strong focus on sustainability, means reliance on landfill sites such as the EMRC's Red Hill Waste Management Facility is significantly decreasing," she said.
"The City will continue to work on waste services with the EMRC and its remaining members as a commercial customer, where we identify an overlap of interests."
The City's current waste services are unaffected by the change and will continue as normal.
