If a spoil allowance on a Melton or western-suburbs site cut moved between last financial year and this one, the first public number to check is the waste levy, not a rumour about 2027. EPA Victoria publishes the rates. Its waste levy page, updated 20 May 2026, sets them out for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.
This is general information for people hiring an earthmover, not legal or pricing advice. Levy settings change. Use the EPA page linked below, and ask the receiving facility which category it is actually charging.
What is already in force
The levy is paid on waste received at a landfill. EPA says its purpose is to push waste away from landfill. It is not a new fee invented for calendar year 2027, and it is not a line you pay to EPA yourself when you book a site cut. The landfill operator accounts for it. It then sits inside the gate cost that a cartage price is built on.
The Treasurer sets the value of a fee unit each financial year. EPA's table converts those units into dollars. When someone says "the levy goes up in 2027", ask which date they mean. On the page we checked, the step-up already happened on 1 July 2026, and the same table runs through 30 June 2027.
The published rates
For prescribed municipal premises, which EPA describes as the municipal districts listed under regulation 52, both municipal waste and industrial waste are $177.19 a tonne from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. For non-prescribed (rural) premises the same table lists $88.42 a tonne for municipal waste and $155.95 a tonne for industrial waste.
Priority waste is a separate table on the same page:
- Category A: landfill is prohibited from receiving it. No levy applies because it cannot go there.
- Category B, which EPA says includes contaminated soils: $296.18 a tonne, up from $288.29 in 2025-26.
- Category C: $177.19 a tonne.
- Category D, described as industrial waste that is soil: $177.19 a tonne.
- Soil containing asbestos, and packaged waste asbestos: $35.58 a tonne, up from $34.63.
On those metropolitan figures, ordinary industrial waste and Category D soil share the same published levy rate this financial year. That does not make them the same waste. Category D is still a priority-waste category. Where it can go, and whether it has to be tracked, is covered in our note on classifying spoil before it leaves a Victorian site.
Do not assume a western-suburbs load gets the rural rate. Metropolitan premises and rural premises are different rows. The facility, not the suburb the soil came from, decides which row applies.
What to ask on a spoil quote
A site-cut quote from us prices cartage from the block to a lawful place, not a levy invoice. Volume, swell, rock and how many tippers the street will take still move the number more than a few dollars a tonne on the levy. Our truckload examples for Melton and the spoil and clean-fill guide are the practical companions to this page.
When you compare two spoil allowances, ask:
- Which facility, and is it a metropolitan or rural premises on the EPA table?
- What waste category the price assumes: fill material, Category D, or something higher?
- Whether asbestos or other contamination is excluded and repriced if it turns up
- Whether the figure is per tonne at the weighbridge or per truck, and what happens if the load weighs more than the guess
We do not publish a 2027 spoil price. The levy table is one public input. It is not the quote. Soil removal and truck work are priced from the cut sheet, the access and the receiving site.
The levy is a published landfill rate. The spoil line on your quote is cartage to a place allowed to take that soil.
Frequently asked questions
Does the waste levy start in 2027?
No. EPA Victoria's table for these rates runs from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. That financial year is already underway. The table is the current published levy, not a proposal for next calendar year.
Is the levy the whole cost of removing spoil?
No. The levy is an amount payable on waste received at a landfill. A price to you also includes cartage, the facility's other charges and whatever classification the soil actually is. Ask for those lines separately.
Sources
- Waste levy, EPA Victoria, page updated 20 May 2026. Tables cover 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 and 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.
Rules and fee units change. Check that page before you treat a rate as current. This article is not a quote and not advice on which landfill may receive a particular load.