Gunnedah Shire Council has found a low-cost, high-compliance solution that is changing how the waste sector approaches public safety.
Regulatory demands for safety and environmental compliance in Australia’s waste sector have never been higher, yet much of the infrastructure used to manage public waste disposal dates back to a far less accountable era.
This is particularly true in regional Australia, where traditional landfill practices often require community members to navigate a risky landscape of active machinery and industrial operations just to drop off a trailer load.
It was against this backdrop of high risk and limited budget that the Gunnedah Shire Council partnered with Contained Waste Solutions (CWS) to show that change doesn’t require a massive budget, just smart engineering.
Like many regional sites, the public access point at the Gunnedah Waste Management Facility, located in north-western New South Wales, previously directed users to the active landfill working face.
This practice, where residents unload waste near heavy plant, contractors, and varying ground conditions, creates an unacceptable duty of care risk.
Gunnedah’s solution, the LBin Waste Transfer Station, is elegant in its simplicity and profound in its impact.
It consists of four covered bays, with 6.2 cubic-metre open-faced LBins, creating an all-weather and compliant public deposition area on a clean, sealed site that can easily service 160 customers a day.
Users reverse directly up to the bays and slide their waste into the bins, immediately separating them from the high-risk activities of the landfill face.
Sheridan Cameron, Gunnedah Shire Council’s Waste Manager, says increasing incidents across the industry were putting landfill safety under greater scrutiny.
“In the past eight years, we’ve heard and can see more accidents happening in the waste industry,” she says.
“As a manager, it’s my responsibility to make sure I have a safe working place, not only for the staff but the users of the site and the contractors.”
Jason Lacey, Managing Director of Contained Waste Solutions, says the Gunnedah design was conceived with legal exposure front of mind, given recent increases in penalties for managers who ignore their duty of care obligations in New South Wales.
“The waste industry has machines and trucks routinely crossing through pedestrian and public areas and fall from heights risks that are commonplace,” Jason says.
The LBin system directly addresses this by physically separating the public from the operational plant and removes the need for working at heights.
The design features wide bays on a flat floor that are easy to reverse into. Customers can simply back up their vehicle and slide their material straight into the bin. This is an enormous safety benefit for older customers or those with diminished physical ability.
The new deposition area also allows staff to control where the waste is deposited, reducing the landfill filling area and the amount of soil covering required.
“Operationally, it’s a big win for the staff as well,” Sheridan says. “In the past, people would unload their waste in areas that we didn’t want them to, like at the top of the landfill. Now we’ve got more control of where the waste is being dropped.
“It’s saving landfill space because the waste is not spread out.”
The improved visual access also helps resource recovery by allowing staff to identify hazardous materials such as batteries, tyres, and steel before they are buried.
The project’s success was recognised at the 2025 Waste Innovation and Recycling Awards, winning the Outstanding WARR (Waste and Resource Recovery Project) – Regional category.
For Gunnedah and CWS, the win is validation of a smarter, safer standard for regional infrastructure.
“I’m quite chuffed about receiving this award, because it’s been a project that I’ve wanted to do since 2012,” Sheridan says.
“I’m proud of this system and how it works. The majority of community feedback has been that it’s a fantastic area to use instead of being out with the flies and dust.
“Users are now driving on a sealed road to an area that is clean, sheltered from the elements, and staffed to help when needed. This elevates the entire experience, encouraging residents to be more mindful of resource recovery and correctly separate their materials before arriving.”
Jason says the Gunnedah success story is resonating across the sector.
“The waste industry can be slow to respond to anything new. It’s still rolling out public waste transfer system concepts that are more than 100 years old,” he says. “The Gunnedah solution is being replicated by many other sites. We’ve got four other sites in the same region that are implementing systems on the back of Gunnedah, and other people are visiting that site to see it in action.”
He says the project serves as a challenge to the rest of the industry, proving that duty of care can be fulfilled affordably.
“The LBin system at Gunnedah was about 80 per cent lower in cost than the traditional alternatives considered. The new system achieves all safety and compliance objectives that the more expensive traditional systems could not.
“Planning and production are simple, with delivery in a few months rather than the years it takes most other traditional systems. Gunnedah’s facility was transformed in just a few months.
“Now we just need a few more people who care about safety, compliance and their budgets, to take it on as well.”
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