Townsville City Council has recorded nearly 22,000 tonnes of waste dumped at all facilities as part of the flood recovery with free dumping finishing on Sunday 3 March.

Council crews are moving through the worst impacted areas of the city to finalise the collection of all flood waste.

Townsville Local Recovery and Resilience Group Chair Deputy Mayor Les Walker said the waste clean-up had been a massive job for everyone involved.

“Council has recorded nearly 22,000 tonnes of flood waste dumped by residents throughout the recovery so far,” Cr Walker said.

“The Australian Defence Force were a fantastic help in removing a large amount of waste initially with Council crews and contractors finalising the pick-up by the end of this week.

“Residents are still able to dump their domestic flood waste at all of our facilities for free until the end of the week.”

The waste collection and free dumping is limited to flood affected house contents and does not include any demolition waste.

Townsville Water and Waste Committee Chair Cr Russ Cook said Council’s free annual kerbside collection will kick off for all residents later this year.

“Council will be finalising the flood waste collection by the end of this week, but our regular kerbside collection will begin in late March,” Cr Cook said.

“This is different to the flood clean up and residents will be notified when they are able to place their waste out.

“I’d also like to remind all residents are able to dispose of green waste and recyclables for free all year.”

The temporary dump at Lou Litster Park will also close to the public at 5pm, Sunday 3 March.

All recovery information is available through the Emergency Management Dashboard at disaster.townsville.qld.gov.au.