Waste levy

The key purpose of the waste levy is to help reduce waste. It encourages waste generators to look for ways to reduce the amount of waste they create and send to landfill.

How the waste levy is calculated

The waste disposal category – for example, Category B – determines the waste levy rate. Priority waste categories are generally determined based on:

• the risk to human health and the environment
• the potential for mismanagement.

The higher the risk, the higher the waste levy.

If you operate a landfill, you must submit a waste levy statement quarterly to us. The statement:

• declares the amount of waste received
• determines the levy amount you must pay.

Visit Submit a waste levy statement for information on when to pay and guidelines to make sure you're paying the correct levy.

The waste levy rates are based on the fee value and units in Schedule 2 of the Environment Protection Act 2017(opens in a new window), shown in the tables below.

The Treasurer of Victoria sets the value of fee and fine units each financial year. For more information on unit rates, visit Indexation of fees and penalties(opens in a new window) on the Department of Treasury and Finance website.

Waste levy rebates

In certain circumstances, you can claim an allowable rebate on the waste levy.

You can claim the rebate where you can demonstrate:

• the waste received was removed from the landfill premises
• the waste was then transferred to a resource recovery facility authorised to accept the waste, and
• this happened within 3 months of waste receival.

You cannot claim a rebate for:

• priority waste that's soil under regulation 46(2)(a) of the Environment Protection Regulations 2021(opens in a new window)
• recovered waste that's removed more than 3 months after being received at the landfill.

When you submit your waste levy statement, you must provide evidence to support your allowable rebate claim.

Municipal waste from resource recovery facilities

Municipal waste that's received at a resource recovery facility and is then transported to a landfill is classified as industrial waste. A higher levy may apply to industrial waste.

The municipal waste levy still applies to waste of a municipal origin, where you can demonstrate that the waste was collected from a municipal source.

You can demonstrate this by maintaining records you receive from the resource recovery facility.

Municipal waste is defined under the Act as waste arising from municipal or residential activities. This includes waste collected by, or on behalf of, a council, but does not include industrial waste. For example, it includes:

• garbage and domestic household waste
• residential kerbside collections
• residential hard waste collections
  
• residential waste delivered to landfill by residents
• park waste.

Waste levy rates for municipal waste and industrial waste

Prescribed municipal premises are those within municipal districts listed under regulation 52 of the Regulations.

Table 1: waste levy rates for 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026

Table 2: waste levy fee units for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027

Priority waste levy rates

The priority waste levy provides a financial incentive to encourage industry to:

• find ways to avoid creating priority waste
• find safe alternatives to waste disposal
• expand programs to reduce waste.

To support industry to do this, we reinvest money raised from the priority waste levy into our waste programs.

All priority waste that's received at the landfill must be classified. Different levy rates apply to priority wastes, as shown in the following tables.

Table 3: Priority waste levy rates for 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026

Table 4: Priority waste levy fee units for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027