The Court held that non-descript crushed rock (NDCR) sourced from an adjacent quarry and used as daily cover on a licensed landfill constituted 'waste' within the meaning of s 4(1) of the Environment Protection Act 1970 (Vic) and was subject to the landfill levy under s 50S. The Court further held that a landfill operator's defence challenging whether material is 'waste' does not constitute an impermissible collateral attack on the EPA's decision to issue a levy invoice, as the EP Act contains no privative clause or provision precluding judicial review, and the characterisation of material as 'waste' is a jurisdictional fact. The Court also held that paragraph (a) of the statutory definition of waste requires an objective assessment of whether matter was deposited in the environment so as to cause an alteration, without engaging any purposive enquiry from the perspective of the owner, distinguishing the purposive analysis applicable under paragraphs (b) and (c) as discussed in Dasma Environmental v EPA.
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