As part of the City’s commitment to finding cost efficiencies along with efforts to reduce the impact of historical and ongoing waste management challenges on our residents, the City is making changes to commercial waste collection services in Bunbury.
From 30 June 2025, the City will no longer provide a commercial waste service as we work with customers for a progressive and smooth transition to a new provider.
Historically, providing a commercial waste collection service has come at a significant cost which commercial rates do not cover, nor do they contribute towards fleet maintenance and capital costs.
A significant fee increase to businesses would have been required to recover the cost of this service however, there are sufficient alternative and competitive waste collection providers in the local market that offer this service.
The City believes this is the most viable option for our community, as is common among many local governments.
The City has written to all commercial customers with arrangements required to be in place before the end of the financial year. We encourage commercial customers to reach out to the City to discuss their specific waste plans as soon as possible.
More Information
Further information on the changes can be provided by our dedicated project team during business hours on 9792 7272 or at commercialwaste@bunbury.wa.gov.au
For non-commercial entities, the City will work with non-residential groups and organisations where possible to consider continuing a waste collection service if it aligns with residential pick-ups and routes.
We want to assure our business community that we are committed to helping them transition to a new provider and finding a suitable solution.
Frequently Asked Questions
The City is committed to finding cost efficiencies within its service delivery and has identified that the commercial waste service charges no longer sustain the cost of delivering the service. Further, this change will allow resources to be reallocated to important service areas that require more maintenance such as the City Centre.
You can make arrangements to move to a new supplier as soon as you are ready to do so.
The final date for all commercial services to be withdrawn is 30 June 2025. Prior to that date, we encourage you to seek an alternative provider to allow a sufficient lead time to transition to your new preferred supplier.
The City may request an earlier transition date if required for scheduling and collection programming. If this is required, the City will be in touch to help you with this request.
There is a mix of almost 4000 branded and non-branded commercial bins currently in service. Branded bins with a City of Bunbury logo or sticker on the body or lid remain the property of the City and are to be collected by the City at a pre-arranged and agreed date.
If the bin/s assigned to your business are unbranded and you wish to continue to use these bins with your new provider, the City is willing to gift you the bins rather than arranging collection.
Bins collected by the City will be re-purposed into normal operations or recycled. The bins do not need to be cleaned before collection.
If you’re not sure what bins are allocated to your property, please contact us on the details below so we can help you further.
The 2024-25 financial year rates will be issued with the new service charges relevant to your property applied. Refer to the attachment for specific details relating to this.
If you are ready to transition to a new provider before the end of the financial year, a rebate of the remaining portion of charges will be applied to your rates for the 2025-26 financial year.
There are a number of local small and large commercial businesses that provide waste collection services to the Bunbury area and they can be found by searching on the internet or seeking advice from other local business owners.
The City is unable to recommend or provide details of specific service providers.
It is important that you advise your tenant/s of the changes to their services and the potential impact as soon as possible.
If waste management is included in the lease, you may need to identify their specific waste requirements and make appropriate arrangements on their behalf.
Once you have identified your preferred supplier and a date for your services to discontinue with the City, please get in contact with the City via the phone number or email below. To ensure a seamless transition, the Project Officer will coordinate your final collection and retrieval of bins (if required) to align with your first date of service with the new provider.
Please provide a minimum of 10 working days’ notice to allow this to be scheduled.
No. A benefit of this change is that each business can assess their individual needs and seek a provider that can meet their requirements for collection schedule, frequency, size, and type of bins.
The City has set up a dedicated phone number and email address for the duration of this project. Please contact the City on 9792 7272 or commercialwaste@bunbury.wa.gov.au to speak to the Project Officer.
Please refer to the City’s website (link below) for information on additional and general waste services.