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Box 1 · Your duty
Your duty for your waste
In Victoria, waste from your renovation stays your responsibility after it goes into a skip. EPA Victoria says it is your responsibility to make sure the waste is lawfully managed, and that if you use a contractor, you are responsible for how they manage the waste from your site.
General information. This page describes the duties as EPA Victoria, the Queensland Government and the NSW EPA set them out, as at October 2026. It is not legal advice; your state’s environment protection authority can tell you how they apply to your waste.
1.1When household waste becomes industrial waste
Most construction and demolition waste is industrial waste in Victoria, and industrial waste must go to a place with authority to receive it, a licensed landfill for example.
The definition reaches further than building sites. EPA Victoria counts as industrial waste anything from renovations, demolitions and repairs; household waste, once it arrives at a transfer station or landfill; and any waste carried for a fee or reward, except kerbside waste collected by or for a council. Council kerbside waste only becomes industrial waste when it reaches a waste or resource recovery facility.
EPA Victoria’s renovation page makes the link to skips directly: the rule that industrial waste goes to a place authorised to receive it includes waste going into a skip bin, or taken away by a waste removal contractor.
1.2The duty everyone carries
Section 25 of Victoria’s Environment Protection Act 2017 sets out the general environmental duty. EPA Victoria sums it up as a duty to “eliminate or otherwise reduce risks of harm from your waste or pollution so far as reasonably practicable” (© Copyright State Government of Victoria), and it applies to households as well as businesses.
Households are not required to follow a formal risk management process, although the EPA offers one as a way to think the risks through. It also points out that household risks are usually lower than a business’s, but that households falling short of the duty can do significant harm collectively.
The duty covers what escapes, too. In Victoria’s law, litter means waste of 50 litres or less, and the EPA lists letting waste escape from your property, or letting part of your load escape from a vehicle or trailer, among the things that are illegal so far as reasonably practicable.
1.3Three copies, three duties
Victoria’s Act gives each person who handles a load of industrial waste a duty of their own. Read together, they work like the three copies of one consignment.
| Who | The duty | What it asks |
|---|---|---|
| You, before the load goes | Section 135: people involved in transporting industrial waste | Anyone who manages or controls industrial waste and intends to have it transported must take all reasonable steps to identify and classify it, give the transporter enough information to take it to a lawful place, and check that it will go to one. |
| Whoever deposits it | Section 133: persons depositing industrial waste | Take it to a place authorised to receive that type of industrial waste, and deposit it with the consent of the person in charge there. Burying or burning waste counts as depositing it, even on your own site. |
| The site that takes it | Section 134: persons receiving industrial waste | A place, premises or facility may receive industrial waste only if it is authorised to receive it. |
EPA Victoria’s worked example of the transport duty, from contract to public register, is set out step by step in Box 3.
1.4An example, from skip to site
Example only: a made-up household, mapped against the duties above
A household in Victoria is replacing a kitchen and hires a skip for the old cabinets, benchtops, tiles and plasterboard.
Before the skip arrives
They list what will go in it and ask the hire company which site will receive the full skip. That is the transport duty: identify the waste, tell the transporter what it is, and check where it is going.
While it fills
They keep the load inside the skip, so nothing blows into the street or spills from the truck. That is the general environmental duty, and Victoria’s rule against letting waste escape as litter.
When it leaves
They keep the hire company’s details and whatever record they are given of where the load went. That habit comes from Queensland’s advice in section 1.5; it is this guide’s suggestion for Victoria, not a Victorian rule.
1.5Outside Victoria
Queensland
Queensland’s Environmental Protection Act 1994 gives everyone in the state a general environmental duty: not to do anything that may cause harm unless measures are taken to prevent or minimise it. A second duty asks you to tell the relevant authority, and landowners, if environmental harm has happened or might happen.
The Queensland Government’s illegal dumping page asks anyone using a waste collection service to keep the operator’s contact and vehicle details, and to request a tip receipt, or some other proof that the waste was disposed of lawfully, so the items are not simply dumped.
New South Wales
For New South Wales, the NSW EPA’s page on illegal dumping laws and penalties is the place to read the rules.
Other states and territories have their own laws. Your state’s environment protection authority is the place to check.
The other boxes on this form
- Box 2 · Illegal dumping
- Box 3 · Checking a waste business
- Box 4 · Waste levies by state
- Box 5 · Building site waste plans
- Box 6 · Recycled and reused materials
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