As Lady Elliot Island is 80km from the mainland there is no weekly garbage truck! Only a 3-month supply barge from Gladstone and light aircraft to service the Island. The island must remove/reuse/recycle ALL waste and waste is to be managed within the guidelines set by our permit and lease requirements from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

The island has a strict policy to recycle and reuse products, as per the Environmental Management System. Guests are required to sort rubbish during their stay on the island e.g. Food, plastic, paper, aluminium and class. All glass (crushed using a glass oppressor and converted to sand), aluminium, tin cans and general refuse is returned to the mainland for recycling where possible. We have also ceased the sale of plastic water bottles on the Island to reduce waste and encourage our guests to use reusable bottles.

For the past 46 years, Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort has composted food waste via in ground methods. In 2016 a commercial grade On-Site Composting Apparatus (OSCA) developed by WDU Composting Technologies was installed. OSCA composts all food waste (250kg per day) plus, cardboard and garden organic matter. The pasteurised compost is used in resort gardens, Nursery, airstrip and re-Greening Program. The compost system runs of the resorts solar energy grid. 

All waste oil from the kitchen and machinery is collected in 200 litre drums and returned to the mainland for recycling. Resort management is currently investigating recycling cooking oil into biodiesel fuel.