The Victorian Government’s planned Rubbish Incinerator in Dandenong South will make our backyard their dumping ground.
Late last year Rachel Payne MP raised the rapid expansion of Waste to Energy (WtE) in Victoria in Parliament. Despite serious environmental and health concerns, enormous rubbish incinerators are either being built or planned in a so-called “ring of fire” around Melbourne. The government has issued 11 licenses for these incinerators – which is more than every other state and territory in Australia combined. All the incinerators are in outer suburbs or regional areas, and all are in lower socio-economic areas.
The rubbish of the inner city is being trucked to the backyards of working-class people. And all in the name of the environment. This is greenwashing at its finest.
Due to the work of Rachel and the tireless advocacy of local activists, a Parliamentary Inquiry into WtE is set to take place in 2026. Like a similar inquiry in NSW, it will examine the potential social, environmental, economic, and other impacts of incinerators. WtE Incinerators are a dream for governments – they can abdicate their responsibility to build a reduce-reuse-recycle circular economy and move instead to buy-use-burn. It is very telling that the buying and using happen in affluent areas, and the burning happens where working people live.
Submissions for the WtE inquiry will open on the 13th of February and close on the 27th of March. We encourage everyone in the South-East to be heard here.
One of the first things Rachel will be asking is exactly how much energy these plants generate and if they are so safe why the Premier herself rejected one in her own electorate. Rachel will continue to do her absolute best to advocate for the South-East in Parliament.
We should not now, and should never be, Victoria’s dumping ground.
Quotes attributable to Rachel Payne:
“Let’s be clear what is happening here – the rubbish of inner-city Melbourne will be packed up, trucked out, and burned in our back yards. If rubbish incinerators are so great, I would suggest we pop one in Spring St – it’s much closer to the latte belt.”
“It is bad enough that we are being asked to process the rubbish of the inner-North at Hampton Park, now we find out that we will have to burn it in Dandenong! And not just municipal waste, but toxic chemicals and industrial waste. The lungs of people in Dandenong are no less worthy than those in Clifton Hill. Our waterways and skies are no less valuable. This is a disgrace.”
Published on Wednesday the 11th of February, 2026.
Related:
- Waste-to-energy: How is Victoria stacking up? – Rachel Payne
- Who’s cashing in as climate funding dries up? – Rachel Payne
- Victoria’s Burning Problem – Waste to Energy – Rachel Payne
- Inquiry into Waste-to-Energy passed! – Rachel Payne
- Waste incineration and landfill targets – Rachel Payne
- Waste-to-energy could cause more problems than it solves – Rachel Payne
