Tip Run Cost Northern Rivers: 2026 Price Guide
Nobody around here publishes what a tip run costs. Ask on a Ballina or Lismore Facebook group and you get twelve replies, two phone numbers and no prices. So here's the straight answer for the Northern Rivers in 2026: what the tip charges you at the gate, what it costs to hire a ute or trailer, and what a paid tip run service (including us) charges to do the whole job. Every gate fee below is from the council fee schedules, checked August 2026.
How much does a tip run cost in the Northern Rivers?
A DIY tip run for a standard 6x4 trailer of mixed household rubbish costs roughly $100 to $145 at the gate, depending on which tip you use, plus your fuel, your time and whatever you pay to borrow or hire the trailer. A paid tip run with a two-person crew doing all the loading runs from $140 for a single item up to $330 to $380 for a full heaped trailer, with the gate fee included in that price.
That's the summary. The rest of this post shows where those numbers come from.
What the tip charges per trailer load
Every council tip in the region charges household waste by weight, and none of them tell you what a trailer load actually weighs. From our own runs, a 6x4 trailer of mixed household junk (furniture, boxes, bits of timber, a few bags) usually comes in between 300 and 400 kg. Heavier if there's rubble or wet green waste, lighter if it's mostly cardboard and plastic.
Using 350 kg as the working figure, here's what that trailer costs at each gate (fees checked August 2026):
- Ballina Resource Recovery Centre: $34.60 per 100 kg household mixed waste, so about $121 for the load. Full breakdown on our Ballina tip page.
- Lismore Recycling & Recovery Centre: $410 per tonne unsorted (about $144), or $300 per tonne if you self-sort at least half of it into the recoverable streams (about $105). Minimum charge $15 unsorted. See the Lismore tip page.
- Byron Resource Recovery Centre (Myocum): $39.50 per 100 kg, minimum $18, so about $138. Details on the Byron Myocum tip page.
- Nammoona (Casino): the Richmond Valley revenue policy lists roughly $124 for a trailer load or about $405 per tonne.
- Kyogle Landfill: flat $48 for a 7x5 ute or trailer load if you live in Kyogle Shire, $80 if you don't. Kyogle is the only tip in the region with a flat per-load price for locals.
- Stotts Creek (Tweed): $284 per tonne for Tweed residents (about $99), but $368 per tonne for anyone from outside the shire (about $129), and they check your ID.
Green waste is far cheaper everywhere. The same trailer of prunings costs about $31 at Ballina ($8.90 per 100 kg) and about $42 at Lismore ($120 per tonne). If your load is half garden waste and half rubbish, split it into two trips or sort it on the trailer; mixing it all together means paying the mixed-waste rate on the lot.
The full side-by-side is in our Northern Rivers tip fees comparison.
What it really costs to do it yourself
The gate fee is the small part. Add up the rest of a Saturday morning tip run:
- Trailer. If you don't own one, hiring a 6x4 for a half day is typically $40 to $70 locally, and you need a tow bar and a licence class that lets you tow it. Byron Shire residents can borrow the council's free 8x5 courtesy trailer, but only on weekdays (pick up 8.30am, back by 2pm), so that's no help if you work Monday to Friday.
- Fuel and time. Ballina to the tip and back is short; Lennox Head, Alstonville or Bangalow to their nearest tip is a 15 to 25 minute drive each way, plus the queue at the weighbridge on a Saturday.
- Loading. Two people, an hour, and someone's back. Couches, mattresses and fridges don't lift themselves.
- Weekend hours. Byron's tip shuts at 11.30am on Saturday and Sunday. Lismore opens at 9am on weekends. Evans Head is closed Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Check Northern Rivers tip hours before you load up, because turning up to a locked gate with a full trailer is a bad afternoon.
Realistically a DIY run for one trailer costs $150 to $220 all-in once you count trailer hire and fuel, and it costs you half a day.
What a paid tip run costs (our prices)
We publish ours because nobody else in the Northern Rivers does. These are the from-prices for a two-person crew, all the loading, the tip fee and a sweep-up afterwards:
- Single item (a couch, a washing machine, a bed base): from $140
- Quarter trailer: $180
- Half trailer: $240
- Full heaped trailer: $330 to $380
- Full trailer of green waste: $260
- Add a mattress: +$70
- Add a fridge or freezer: +$60
Distance adds about $30 once you're more than 25 km from Ballina, and Byron-side jobs run 10 to 15 per cent higher because the Myocum gate fee is the dearest in the region. Heavy, dense loads like tiles, soil or concrete are priced on site the same way, by weight, because that's how the tip charges us.
The exact number is built in front of you. We come out, walk the pile with you, put every item into the quoting app while you watch, and the price is the price. No estimate over the phone, no surprise on the day. Full rate card on the pricing page.
When DIY is cheaper, and when it isn't
Do it yourself if:
- You own a trailer and a tow vehicle already.
- The load is light and easy (cardboard, bags, garden prunings).
- You're in Ballina or Lismore, five minutes from the tip.
- You've got a mate and a free Saturday morning.
Get someone in if:
- There's anything heavy: a fridge, a mattress, a lounge, rubble.
- You'd be hiring a trailer anyway. Once trailer hire plus fuel plus fees passes $150, you're most of the way to a quarter or half trailer done for you.
- The tip's weekend hours don't line up with your weekend.
- It's a shed or a whole house, not one trailer. A shed or garage clean-out is usually three or four trailer loads and a full day of sorting, and the tip charges the same per kilo whether you take it or we do.
Tip vouchers change the maths
If you're in Lismore, Byron or Kyogle Shire, council gives you tip vouchers ($82 each in Lismore, two $50 vouchers in Byron, one $50 voucher in Kyogle). Ballina Shire and Richmond Valley give nothing. A voucher covers the gate fee, not the ute, so a free-gate DIY run is genuinely cheap if you have the trailer. We cover who gets what in tip vouchers in the Northern Rivers.
For the official fee tables, Ballina publishes its Resource Recovery Centre fees and charges and Lismore has its Recycling & Recovery Centre fees. Councils reset fees every 1 July, so if you're reading this in 2027, check the date at the top of our tip pages.