‘Tough pill to swallow’: Towns kick up stink over plan to dump Sydney rubbish

Four towns in NSW are set to be loaded with rubbish from Sydney as the city’s landfills quickly reach capacity, sparking outrage from councils.

As landfills across Sydney come closer to reaching capacity, four towns in the state have been selected to host an incinerator, which will burn excess waste from Sydney and convert it to energy.

The landfills at Lucas Heights, Eastern Creek, and Erskine Park are all forecast to reach their capacity by 2030.

Four priority infrastructure areas – West Lithgow, Parkes, Richmond Valley and Southern Goulburn Mulwaree – have been selected to cop the excess waste.

These locations have been selected based on the proximity to Greater Sydney, regional NSW, and the Inland Rail route that connects to Victoria and Queensland.

“Without new waste solutions, landfill capacity will be exhausted within the next decade, significantly driving waste management costs up for households and businesses,” an EPA report read.

“This added burden will put pressure on households already experiencing the cost-of-living crisis and could slow down the development of critical infrastructure, such as housing for the state’s growing population.”

The Parkes incinerator will be developed by a group of companies dubbed the Parkes Energy Recovery, which will transport about 700,000 tonnes of red bin waste to the town every year.

“The waste strategy plans to locate the right infrastructure in the right place to recover, reuse

and extend the life of most waste materials,” the plan reads.

“This includes strategic investment in, and planning for, infrastructure to create new jobs, and

funding to drive innovation and investment in waste technologies.

“While energy from waste facilities have been identified as a part of the state’s residual infrastructure needs, their location needs to be strategically planned to ensure they meet the

State’s waste management demands into the future and maximise the innovation, energy and waste management opportunities in NSW.”

A NSW EPA spokesman told NewsWire they supported the state’s “strategic approach to the role of energy from waste to reduce our reliance on landfill and build resilience in waste management, while maintaining strong protections for communities and the environment”.

“In February 2025, the NSW EPA opened a public consultation on proposed changes to the energy from waste framework, which saw comprehensive engagement with community, councils and industry.”

They said while there are no waste-to-energy plants currently operating, any proposed facility would be subjected to “rigorous merit-based assessment by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (DPHI), including detailed environmental assessments and public consultation”.

Landfill plans outrage council, farmers

The move has outraged locals in the towns who argue it may cause health problems

An application to create a waste-to-energy plant in Eastern Creek in Sydney’s west was rejected by the NSW Independent Planning Commission in 2018 due to “uncertainty in relation to the human health risks and site suitability”.

Speaking to the ABC, residents in the four towns are pushing back against the planned incinerators.

“If it’s not safe to have it in Sydney, put bluntly, it’s not safe to have (it) in Parkes,” Parkes Mayor Neil Westcott told 7.30.

“To be the guinea pigs straight up is a very tough pill to swallow.”

Parkes farmers have argued the waste management may contain toxic emissions and infiltrate soil, leading to produce being rejected by domestic and international markets.

“Soil is what grows our crops, it grows our grass for our livestock,” farmer Andrew Field said.

“We’re worried about the environmental impact (of) the emissions coming out of the stack, and we won’t know for years what that will be.”

Speaking to NewsWire, Parkes Energy Recovery director Ed Nicholas said the emissionswere “safe”.

“Waste generation is currently an unavoidable part of daily life,” he said.

“The NSW Government has identified Energy-from-Waste as its preferred solution for red bin waste in NSW, diverting waste from landfill and turning rubbish into reusable resource.

“Energy-from-Waste is safe, proven technology used in hundreds of cities and regions around the world, including near farms and agricultural land.”

He said the facility would use the “latest, proven technology already working in major centres across Asia, the UK and Europe”.

He told NewsWire that while he is aware there would be trepidation towards the plant, he said the state’s regulations were “among the most stringent in the world”.

“We need to show that we will meet and beat these standards and demonstrate the safety of this technology,” he said.

“Put simply: if we can’t demonstrate that Parkes Energy Recovery is safe, it won’t be approved to be built.

“When safety is proven, the benefits it can bring can’t be overlooked.”

The NSW EPA spokesman said there were “no safety concerns in relation to best practice energy from waste facilities”.

“All energy from waste facilities are required to meet relevant state and national air emission standards designed to protect human health and the environment,” they told NewsWire.