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Greater Taree, Great Lakes & Gloucester Councils form Strategic Alliance-Delivery of Waste Services

Greater Taree City, Great Lakes and Gloucester Councils have entered into a strategic alliance for the sharing of Waste Infrastructure and Collection Services that has resulted in a new contract with JR Richards & Sons to commence from 1 November this year.

The official signing of the joint contract between the three Councils and JR Richards and Sons will take place in the Council Chambers at Gloucester Shire Council on Wednesday 20 May from 12.30pm with the Mayors and Council staff representatives from each of the three Councils on hand for the signing.

Under the new Waste and Recycling contract each Residential and Rural Residential household will be entitled to three bins. These include  a 1 x 140L bin with red lid for waste (collected weekly), 1 x 240L bin with yellow lid for recycling (collected fortnightly) and 1 x 240L bin with green lid for greenwaste (collected fortnightly) and one annual bulk waste kerbside collection service for scrap metal/whitegoods and general bulky waste.

Greater Taree City Council Mayor, Paul Hogan said that this strategic alliance marked a historic and very positive step in the three Councils approach to the delivery of environmental services and meeting community expectations. "Our Councils consider improvements in the region's waste services to be an important step in meeting the future needs of the local communities."

Midcoast Waste Services is a body established by the three member Councils of Great Lakes, Gloucester and Greater Taree to administer regional waste management between the Councils. During the last two years, Midcoast Waste Services have been engaged in the development of a sub-regional approach to waste management.

In an Infrastructure Sharing Report, completed in 2007 the long term need to share landfill assets as well as develop a sub-regional approach to the collection of waste, recycling and garden organics was identified as a priority. The Midwaste Regional Strategy also identified that Greater Taree, Great Lakes and Gloucester Councils should collectively tender for various waste services and introduce a range of collection services consistent with other Councils in the region.

The tendering processes for the new joint contract were coordinated through Midcoast Waste Services when in 2008 the three Councils issued a collective tender for waste services in their local government areas to commence, tenders for the waste services were received and evaluated by a duly appointed panel.

Great Lakes Mayor, Jan McWilliams said that the three Councils have been alert to community expectations for a range of options to encourage efficient use of resources and to discourage any unnecessary waste disposal.

"The current and future needs of the local communities within the region have been of central concern during this process which led the three Councils to enter into ten year contracts with JR Richards and Sons for the collection of waste, recyclables and garden organics.

"A new material recovery facility has been approved for construction at the Tuncurry Waste Management Centre for the processing of recyclables.  Our three Councils will continue to cooperate to move towards a regional solution for the disposal of waste, thereby securing the region's disposal needs into the future."

Gloucester Shire Council Mayor, Julie Lyford added that "Midcoast Waste Services have recognised that a "three bin" approach (red, yellow and green) for the collection of waste, recycling and garden organics across each of the Council areas is the optimum service mix to achieve environmental outcomes and also meet community expectations as well as the Department of Environment and Climate Change reduction targets".

Local waste education programs will now be implemented in the lead-up to the services commencing in November 2009.

At a glance -  what the new service arrangements will mean:

• Under the new Waste and Recycling contract each Residential and Rural Residential household will be entitled to three bins. These include  a 1 x 140L bin with red lid for waste (collected weekly), 1 x 240L bin with yellow lid for recycling (collected fortnightly) and 1 x 240L bin with green lid for greenwaste (collected fortnightly) and one annual bulk waste kerbside collection service for scrap metal/whitegoods and general bulky waste.
• Rural areas will have 1 x 140L bin with red lid for waste (collected weekly), 1 x 240L bin with yellow lid for recycling (collected fortnightly).
• These new arrangements will commence from 1 November 2009.
• Households will be issued with new bins and the old bins will be collected by the contractor.  The old bins will be recycled.
• Due to the introduction of the fortnightly greenwaste service two of the previous greenwaste bulk clean-ups will no longer be required. The other two bulk clean-ups for Scrap Metal/White Goods and Bulky/Residual waste will now be combined into one collection service, to assist residents in disposing of bulky items that do not fit in the mobile garbage bin.
• Depending upon which Local Government Area you reside in, the proposed new domestic waste services charges will vary from Council to Council from $5.77 to $7.00 per week.  This charge will include the recently announced State Government, Waste and Environment Levy and the Federal Government's proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme levy.

Contact details
Great Lakes Council
Tel: 02 6591 7222
Fax: 02 6591 7200
http://www.greatlakes.nsw.gov.au
council@greatlakes.nsw.gov.au

© 2008 Great Lakes Council
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