COVID-19 Response – Lithgow Solid Waste Facility

Lithgow City Council wishes to remind residents that Lithgow Solid Waste Facility is closed to the public in response to COVID-19.

Whilst the decision to close Lithgow Solid Waste Facility to the public was at the request of the landfill contractor for the health and safety of their staff, it is equally important to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic in our region.  The response by Lithgow City Council reinforces recent NSW Public Health Orders that restricts people movement during this pandemic. 

Under the current Public Health Order a person can only leave the home for the ‘essential’ reasons of:

Work, if a person can’t work from home School or an educational institution Shops for food and other essential items Get medical care Exercise, but only if the exercise is done alone or with one other person

Beyond those essential reasons for leaving the home, the NSW Government has provided a list which would “excuse” somebody being outside. It includes:

Fleeing an unsafe home, so to avoid injury or illness Dealing with an emergency or on compassionate grounds Providing care or helping a vulnerable relative/person Taking your child to childcare Attending a wedding (adhering to the five-person limit) or a funeral (adhering to a 10-person limit) Moving house or moving between two places of residence Donating blood Fulfilling legal obligations Accessing support services such as employment services, mental services etc Fulfilling parental sharing arrangements of children (the Government says those conditions shouldn’t change and children can move between homes) Going to a place of worship or to provide pastoral care, if you are a priest, minister or member of a religious order.

Lithgow Solid Waste Facility remains open for kerbside and commercial vehicles (and bushfire waste as part of the coordinated clean-up) to ensure an essential waste service is still provided for the community. Persons who have a specific problem and need to urgently dispose of waste prior to the weekly kerbside pickup can contact the weighbridge on 0417 226 429.  Council is asking residents to be patient during this difficult time and avoid any activities that will generate waste requiring a visit to the waste facility.

Council would also like to remind residents that the Government restrictions apply to visiting rural landfills and transfer stations. Some residents in these areas do not have a kerbside service and the rural sites remain open to continue to provide an essential waste service for those people.  Whether these facilities remain open will be the subject of review.  Residents are strongly encouraged to only use them if they do not have access to a kerbside collection service.