{"id":562038,"date":"2026-03-24T22:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/562038\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T22:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:44:16","slug":"queensland-wood-mulch-company-accuses-ipswich-council-of-political-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/562038\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland wood mulch company accuses Ipswich council of ‘political agenda’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland’s waste industry has blasted a local council’s “political agenda” over a decision requiring an odorous wood mulching site at Ipswich to be covered up quickly.<\/p>\n

Ipswich City Council last month denied an application to give Wood Mulching Industries (WMI) more time to cover its composting operations, despite council officers recommending the application be approved.<\/p>\n

WMI has now launched an appeal of that decision in the Planning and Environment Court.<\/p>\n

Court documents seen by the ABC revealed WMI “took issue” with the council’s decision, and they believed the approval would lead to the “timely reduction of odorous waste streams” by ensuring “sufficient time” to complete the project.<\/p>\n

WMI operate a conventional, open wood mulching and compositing facility at Swanbank \u2014 home to other similar facilities and landfill sites.<\/p>\n

The company had sought approval from the council for a three-year extension to a plan to enclose the processing plant.<\/p>\n

Under state government rules, by September 30 this year WMI will no longer be able to receive odorous feedstock unless it is part of a fully enclosed biogas facility.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding voted to refuse the extension. (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n

Mayor Teresa Harding voted to refuse the extension alongside four other councillors. Three voted to approve it.<\/p>\n

“This extension was too long for residents who expect composting operators to enclose odorous facilities in line with Queensland government regulations,” Cr Harding said earlier this month.<\/p>\n

“This decision has been made with the ongoing odour impacts on the Ipswich community at the forefront of our minds.<\/p>\n

“While WMI is not yet required to have its composting facility fully enclosed, the community has been clear that odour impacts must be minimised as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n

‘Highly offensive’ odours<\/p>\n

Last year a health inquiry into the impacts of odours from the waste industry, including landfill and compost sites in the Swanbank and New Chum area, found they were “highly offensive” and had a negative impact on residents’ health and wellbeing.<\/p>\n

The report found the odours were impacting respiratory, ear-nose-throat, neurological, gastrointestinal, skin and the mental health of residents. There was no evidence of an increased risk of cancer.<\/p>\n

The report highlighted WMI was a “primary source” of the odours.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Wood Mulching Industries said the finding was a “generalisation and not reflective of what has occurred in recent years”.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

A health inquiry last year found odour impacts from the waste industry were having a negative impact on residents. (ABC News: Baz Ruddick)<\/p>\n

“There are no ongoing odour impacts involving WMI in terms of the community,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“This has resulted because of actual changes to WMI’s current operations to differentiate itself from other facilities in the region.<\/p>\n

“Since the approval for the new facility in 2022, WMI has voluntarily stopped taking in all odorous materials, at huge cost and financial detriment to WMI \u2026 [and] now only processes green waste feedstock as per council contracts.”<\/p>\n

The WMI spokesperson said escalating costs, availability of funding and market conditions meant the “pathway to enclosed facilities” was “long and arduous”.<\/p>\n

It said the council’s decision appeared to have been made not with its own planning department’s recommendations in mind, but “with a political strategic agenda in mind”.<\/p>\n

‘Exercising legal rights’<\/p>\n

Waste Recycling Industry Association Queensland (WRIQ) CEO Alison Price said operators like WMI were entitled to use lawful review pathways.<\/p>\n

“This is how Queensland’s planning system works. Exercising legal rights isn’t confrontation, it’s due process,” she said.<\/p>\n

“WRIQ continues to work constructively with councils, regulators and government agencies to support better waste management outcomes for communities across Queensland.<\/p>\n

“Facilities like this play a critical role in managing Queensland’s growing volumes of green waste.<\/p>\n

“If we want to continue diverting organic material from landfill and meeting recycling targets the state must ensure operators have a stable and predictable regulatory environment in which to invest in improved infrastructure.”<\/p>\n

Tracey Butler from advocacy group Stop The Stink lives in Redbank Plains and said she was glad the council’s rejection of the WMI extension happened.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Ipswich woman Tracey Butler says she does not have faith the waste industry will “do the right thing”. (ABC News: Victoria Pengilley)<\/p>\n

“I don’t want them back in there doing their stuff,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’re still getting the odours.<\/p>\n

“Last Wednesday I got up and opened the window \u2026 and I nearly threw up all over the bench because it was that bad. It was complete gas.”<\/p>\n

She said she did not have faith the waste industry would “do the right thing”.<\/p>\n

Ipswich City Council would not comment on WMI’s court appeal, but documents revealed they had appointed a counsel to represent them in court on Tuesday, March 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland’s waste industry has blasted a local council’s “political agenda” over a decision requiring an odorous wood mulching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,227182,99,23742,154210,24239,277070,277071,271201,277069],"class_list":{"0":"post-562038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-biogas","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-city-council","13":"tag-odour","14":"tag-smell","15":"tag-stink","16":"tag-stop-the-stink","17":"tag-teresa-harding","18":"tag-wood-mulching-industries"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}