- $5 flat fee on home landfill loads from 1 July. Green waste, scrap metal and recycling stay free.
- Keep your load under 2.1m × 1.5m × 60cm. Go bigger and you pay business rates by the tonne.
- Business tip fees jump 15% ($308 → $355 a tonne). So junk removal prices will rise — ours too.
- The Gold Coast is one of the last councils near us to charge homes at all.
What’s Actually Changed
From 1 July 2026, the council charges homes a flat $5 to tip a load with any landfill or building waste in it. Green waste, recycling and scrap metal stay free, as long as you drop them off in separate loads. The council sets out the full rule on its new gate fees page, and we broke it down in our last issue.
The change most people have missed is on the business side. Mixed waste at the gate goes from $308 to $355 a tonne — about 15% more. The minimum charge rises from $33.88 to $41 too. You can see the rates on the council’s fee page.
What This Means for You
For a normal tip run, you’ll pay $5 each visit if your load has any landfill or building waste in it. If you only bring green waste, metal or items to donate, it’s still free.
Here’s the part most people miss. Every business that hauls junk now pays 15% more to dump it. Small operators can’t just wear that cost. So prices for junk and rubbish removal across the Coast are going up.
Ours will go up too. Not to make more money — just to cover what the job now costs us. Here’s how a 15% rise plays out on a real quote:
| A $600 job | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Service | $600 | $690 |
| GST (10%) | $60 | $69 |
| Total | $660 | $759 |
So a job that was $660 now costs $759. That’s $99 more. And $9 of that is just extra GST on the higher price.
How to Save Money & Time
- Sort your load first. Green waste, scrap metal and recycling are free in their own loads. Only the landfill part triggers the $5. Sort it well and you might pay nothing.
- Stay under the size limit. Keep your load within 2.1m × 1.5m × 60cm. That keeps you on the $5 flat fee, not the per-tonne business rate.
- Set aside anything reusable. Furniture, whitegoods and good gear can be sold or donated. That’s weight you never pay to dump.
Other Ways to Handle It
- Free Recycle Street bays. Every Gold Coast centre has free, colour-coded bays for recycling. We covered them in our Recycle Street issue.
- Council kerbside pickup. The FLEXiSKiP service picks up bulky items from your kerb for a set fee. Handy if you can’t get to a tip. Here’s what you get for $50.
- Donate the good stuff. Lifeline, Salvos and Vinnies take usable furniture and goods. Call first to check what they want that week.
A Few Things Most People Don’t Know
- The Gold Coast is one of the last around here to charge homes. Brisbane and Logan already use voucher systems — you get a few free, then you pay. Tweed charges a $10 minimum every visit. We’ve had free tipping longer than most.
- Our business tip rate is now the highest nearby. At $355 a tonne, the Gold Coast sits above every neighbour:
| Mixed waste at the gate | Per tonne |
|---|---|
| Gold Coast (from 1 July) | $355 |
| Tweed Shire (NSW) | $273 |
| Brisbane | $238 |
| Logan | from $131 |
That puts the average around us near $215 a tonne — well under what the Gold Coast now charges.
Where Junk Gents Comes In
When we clear a job, we charge by the size of the load. We pay to dump it no matter what — businesses don’t get the free home rates. With these new fees, that cost has gone up for us, the same as it has for every operator on the Coast. We’d rather tell you straight why prices are moving than slip it into a quote and hope you don’t notice.
Hope this clears up the new tip fees and what they mean for your next clean-out. As always, if it ever gets too big to handle yourself — we’ve got you covered.
Ty
Owner, Junk Gents
junkgents.com.au