More than 22,000 tonnes of waste have been transferred to Brisbane’s Rochedale Landfill since Friday, the beginning of a clean-up that waste management companies predict will take months.
Brisbane City Council is using all of its resources for the co-ordination of waste removal, including its regular waste contractors and vehicles normally used for asphalt operations and park and garden maintenance.
Private contractors, the Australian Defence Force and volunteer residents are also assisting, trucking waste to temporary transfer stations set up in Brisbane parks, then on to Rochedale.
A spokeswoman for the council said 22,423 tonnes of rubbish was transferred to the landfill site between Friday and yesterday.
Separate food waste skips and bulk bins have been set up across the city to ensure food products are removed quickly.
All of the flood waste would ultimately be disposed of at Rochedale and other private landfills, the spokeswoman said, and Brisbane’s landfill capacity was large enough to cope.
Brian Cohalan, the general manager of SITA Environmental Solutions Queensland, said the greater problem was the logistical operation of removing the garbage from Brisbane’s streets.
”I would be suggesting months to clean up, in terms of getting the waste off the street,” he said.
His company, with additional staff and vehicles from other states, is working 12 hours a day to remove the waste.
In the Brisbane suburb of Bellbowrie, the river front near Lions Park is being used as a temporary transfer station.
Residents described a constant cycle of rubbish being dumped and collected, estimating that two Olympic swimming pools of waste could accumulate at any one time.
