The Queensland Premier is seeking urgent talks with the Premier of New South Wales over the dumping of waste north of the state border.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was horrified by the extent of allegations raised in last night's Four Corners program into the dumping of waste from NSW into Queensland.

The Four Corners investigation exposed an organised network of waste transporting and freighting companies sending waste by road and by rail to Queensland to avoid paying the high NSW landfill levy of $138 per tonne.

The trade is so lucrative that the industry estimates the amount of construction and demolition waste now being transported to Queensland has reached about one million tonnes a year, almost double official government figures from the past financial year.

"We were not aware of the extent [of the dumping] until it was highlighted on the Four Corners program last night," she said.

"Everyone would have been horrified and alarmed at the extent of the waste that was being dumped, transferred from inner city NSW up into Queensland," she said.

Queensland Environment Minister Steven Miles said he was well aware that some parts of Queensland, particularly Ipswich west of Brisbane, were waste dumping hot spots but that he was hamstrung.

"We've sought on multiple occasions constitutional advice about whether there is anything Queensland can do to address the exporting of waste from other states to Queensland," he said.

"The constitution is very clear that there is nothing a state government can do to restrain trade between state boundaries."

Berejiklian to Palaszczuk: We pay billions to Queensland

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian shot back at her Queensland counterpart's reaction.

"I begrudge the fact that we pay billions to Queensland in GST every year and I would say to Queensland, focus on being a good government and doing what you need to do," she said.

"The Queensland Premier it seems to me needs to do her homework, and if she's concerned about issues which are beyond state boundaries she should raise them at COAG."

The National Waste Recycling Industry Council has defended its members against evidence of dysfunction and criminal activity.

Spokesman Max Spedding said it was not an issue among his 10 members, which include Cleanaway, JJ Richards and Lantrac.

"I don't believe so. We're talking about these national companies. Now with my affiliates — those affiliates have about 450 members between them and I can't speak for each of the affiliate members," he said.

NSW proximity law must be enforced: Palaszczuk

The NSW Environment Protection Agency (EPA) introduced a law in 2014 designed to stop the interstate waste trade, known as the proximity principle.

It was designed to stop waste being moved more than 150 kilometres from where it was generated, but the law was riddled with holes and easily challenged by industry operators seeking to undermine it.

"I'm going to make it a priority today to speak to the NSW Premier, to ensure that she enforces the NSW proximity laws," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"I clearly do not want to see Queensland being the dumping ground of NSW waste.

"If they do not have enough capacity in their own backyard, they should create more capacity."

Acting Ipswich Mayor Paul Tully said he was disappointed the NSW Government was not enforcing its own law on the disposal of waste.

"That law is simply not being enforced and that means its coming across state borders into Queensland and principally into Ipswich," he said.

However, a spokesman for NSW Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton said the Government expected to release a draft proposal to tighten up recycling in coming weeks.

He said the proposal aimed to reduce the amount of waste moving interstate and increase recycling in New South Wales.

"A national approach to regulate waste moving between states will be discussed at a meeting of state environment protection authorities later this year. NSW is leading this work," he said.

Grant Musgrove from the Australian Council of Recycling blamed state and federal inaction for the system failure and called for the reintroduction of a national waste police.

"We had a national waste plan that was going to take us through to 2020 signed off by all states, all territories and the Commonwealth," he said.

"Unfortunately the Abbott government walked away from that, so we have no national coordination, we have no national plan.

"If that plan was implemented we wouldn't be in this situation."

Queensland rules out reintroducing waste levy

Queensland's Newman government abolished the state's landfill levy in 2012. Since then, the interstate waste trade has flourished.

Ms Palaszczuk has again ruled out introducing a levy in this term of government, and said it was up to NSW to enforce the law.

Sorry, this video has expired Australia's organised waste trade

Councillor Tully said waste companies had been saving millions of dollars by dumping waste in Queensland since the levy was abolished.

"I'm calling on the state to review that. They have indicated in the current term of office there be no new taxes imposed and that's a fair position to hold," he said.

"But it is extraordinary that NSW has a huge waste levy and the operators are saving millions of dollars a year by avoiding that levy."

Cleanaway is one waste company that has a landfill in Ipswich.

Head of corporate affairs Frank Sufferini said he would support a levy because his company was competing with rogue waste operators coming into the state.

"We believe it brings greater balance between waste disposal costs between NSW and Queensland," he said.

NSW Opposition environment spokeswoman Penny Sharpe said waste levies would only work if there was a cooperative approach.

"The Government ought to put on the agenda at a national level the issue of levies and the hundreds of millions of dollars that's been lost in waste as our rubbish gets trucked to Queensland," she said.

Abandoned mines to be urgently investigated

Residents in south-east Queensland, where multiple dumps are located, have told Four Corners they are increasingly concerned about what is being tipped down the old mine sites surrounding them.

"I've also asked the Environment Minister Steven Miles to urgently investigate why abandoned mines are being used for this practice," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"It is clearly unacceptable for this waste to be coming across the border and be dumped in unused mine pits, so this matter will be urgently investigated by the EPA, and of course the Government takes these allegations incredibly seriously."

The Four Corners investigation also found hundreds of thousands of tonnes of glass were being stockpiled and landfilled instead of being recycled.

Four Corners followed the interstate waste trade from NSW to old mine sites in Queensland ( Four Corners )

Bio-fuel option to be explored

Ms Palaszczuk said she wanted to explore alternative technology for the glass recycling.

"I've just come back from Nevada and we've seen technology which changes that product into a biofuel," she said.

"We do not have the technology here at present, but that is something we'll look at for Queensland waste into the future."

Mr Miles there was a range of fuel options worth investigating.

"There is a lot of opportunities for recycling, particularly things like organic waste, tyres, all sorts of different products can be changed into a wide range of fuels that can power anything from our cars to big aircraft," he said.

But the biofuel idea did not address the immediate issue of waste dumping in Ipswich, said Mark Sutton, chief executive officer of the Biofuels Association of Australia.

"The technology is not there at the moment," he said.

"There's no reason why any particular waste stream can't be converted into biofuel. Matter of having right technology and investment and the economics stack up."

Watch the Four Corners episode Trashed: The Dirty Truth About Your Rubbish.