MidCoast Council is aware that concern has arisen in the community about a temporary waste collection site in Kanangra Drive, Taree, near St. Joseph's Primary School.
The site is being used to temporarily store waste from flood impacted houses and businesses across the area.
The site is licensed as a temporary waste transfer station with the NSW Environment Protection Authority, having formerly been used as a landfill. The administration of St. Joseph's Primary School is aware of both the purpose of the site and the fact it is not being used to store hazardous materials. Traffic control is also in place and the site has been secured from the public. It was previously used for the same purpose during the 2021 flood event.
It is important for the community to understand that the site will only be in operation while flood waste continues to be collected from the surrounding areas. Once all flood waste has been collected, it will be transported in bulk to another temporary site at Minimbah, where it will be sorted and taken to other facilities outside of the MidCoast at no cost to ratepayers.
Council is asking people in flood impacted areas to leave their flood damaged waste on the kerbside for Council to collect rather than taking it to the Taree Waste Management Centre. If flood waste is taken to our Bucketts Way landfill it will fill up the landfill and we will not have room to deal with our weekly red bin collections. This will ultimately cost the community as we will need to create more storage space.
Council will provide an update on how long the Kanangra Drive site is likely to be in use as the clean-up from the flood progresses.
