Yass Valley Transfer Station

Some different action this week showing a waste management facility, with this particular transfer station site belonging to Yass Valley Council. For a smaller garbage depot primarily servicing the town of Yass and immediate surrounds, it’s quite a comprehensive and impressive operation here! The main feature of this show is the outdoor waste pit, with a council side loader tipping off and the entertainment of a Bobcat ploughing through the garbage as it feeds the Wastech compactor. I also take a glance at some other dealings of this facility, including the scrap metal pile, green waste shredding, problem waste storage, recycling shed, baled materials and the coloured glass bays. Kerbside collected recycling is delivered to a regional MRF in another council area, however this Yass site accepts additional smaller drop-off volumes. The old steel rear lift bins sitting around the place were a cool sight too, very old bins at that, I think maybe utilised for the council commercial waste service at the time (but I’m not 100% on this).

There are numerous transfer stations across Yass Valley, most of which are very small to service specific rural communities and are maybe only open once or twice a week. This Yass transfer station is the major waste management centre for the council, alongside the Murrumbateman depot which serves another sizeable population and appears to function in similar ways to the Yass depot. What both these sites feature are outdoor mixed waste pits and transfer trailer compactor systems, with the Yass set-up shown very much so in this video as it was seen in 2012. There is a group of councils part of a regional disposal contract, which sees domestic waste and other general rubbish received at council facilities transported to the Bald Hill landfill at Jugiong. Along with Yass and Murrumbateman, there are also trailer compactors in operation at Boorowa, Young, Murrumburrah, Cootamundra and Tumbarumba. We see an old bright yellow Cleary Bros trailer in use here, but I’m thinking nowadays it's a younger white fleet with the South West Regional Waste Management Group signage.