Supreme Court upholds EPA Landfill Levy argument

The Supreme Court has upheld EPA Victoria’s argument that the company running the Melbourne Regional Landfill (MRL) in Ravenhall, underpaid its Landfill Levy contributions by nearly $7 million in 2017-2018.

Landfill Operations Pty Ltd (LOPL) runs the MRL (also known as Cleanaway Ravenhall) and used non-descript crushed rock (NDCR) sourced from a neighbouring quarry as daily cover over landfill cells.

EPA argued the NDCR was waste and should have been included in the Landfill Levy. All landfills pay the levy which is collected by EPA each year and passed to the state government.

On Thursday last week (7 May 2026) the Supreme Court ruled NDCR fell within the definition of waste under the EP Act 1970, for the purposes of landfill levy and must pay $6,936,892.05 as the underpayment amount for the 2017-2018 financial year.

EPA and LOPL will now discuss costs and possible interest on the unpaid levy.

To read more about waste levies go to https://www.epa.vic.gov.au/waste-levy