2016-12-12 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                               12 DECEMBER 2016


Staff engaged AEC Group Pty Ltd to compile and present a report to the ACCC on Council’s
behalf regarding the proposal for the introduction of the compulsory 3 bin service to domestic
premises. The process included seeking comment from gardeners engaged in providing this
service now and the potential impact on their business due to the introduction of the garden
waste bin.

Advice was received from the ACCC that it was not clear that the introduction of a 3 bin system
would in itself breach the competition provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act (CCA),
and that if it did so both authorisation and notification would be formally required to provide
protection to Council from legal action for certain conduct that may breach the competition
provisions of the CCA where the public benefits from the conduct will outweigh the public
detriment .The ACCC also advised that Council could maintain a certain level of competition
within the 3 bin service to mitigate the impact on local competitors to largely maintain the viability
of those business operators.

To mitigate the risk of anti-competitive behaviour and minimise the impact on local businesses an
undertaking has been given to gardeners and to the ACCC that Council would not mandate the
third garden waste bin for unit complexes, or where the owner of a single dwelling employed a
service to remove garden waste. (which achieves the same objective as the garden waste
collection service).

King and Company also raised the issue of the number of recycling bins allowed under current
legislation. This matter was referred to the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection
(DEHP), recommending that the legislation be amended as suggested by King and Company.
The Department has a different opinion to King and Company and believes that Council is within
its lawful rights to implement a 3 bin service to include a garden waste recycling service. Based
on the Department’s advice staff believe that the risks associated with proceeding with a 3 bin
service are minimal.

Trial - Inclusion of Limited Food Waste in the Optional Garden Waste Bin
During the tender period a trial was undertaken by approximately 1,000 properties whereby a
limited volume of vegetable and fruit waste was included in their existing optional garden waste
bin service. This was to determine if there was capacity to include a limited range of food waste
in the fortnightly collection service without creating a nuisance from fly breeding, odour or other
objectionable outcomes. Results of the trial indicate that the proposal could reduce some organic
waste going to landfill, and it is considered worthwhile to give further consideration to extending
the limited inclusion of food to the whole community in the new contract. Further trialling during
the current contract is proposed.

The inclusion of this limited food waste will remove some organic loading from the landfill and at
the same time impose no additional cost to the community, compared to the cost of a garden
waste service without the inclusion of limited food waste. This goes part way to meeting the
Community Jury’s recommendation to implement a full weekly organic waste service, but does
not impose the significant additional cost of a waste processing facility required if a full organic
waste service was implemented. A copy of the flyer that was distributed to residents is included
as Attachment 2 to this report.

Invitation to tender
Tenders were invited for 3 separable portions of the waste management contract to ensure the
best available outcome could be achieved for Council. Tenderers were invited to tender on one
two or all three Separable Portions in any combination.

Separable Portion A – Solid Waste Collection;
Separable Portion B – Management of Eumundi Rd Landfill; and
Separable Portion C – Resource Recovery.

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