Northern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils
Regional Waste Management Futures: Industry Consultation
Northern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils
Regional Waste Management Futures: Industry Consultation
1. Introduction
2. Purpose of Consultation
3. Waste Management Objectives
4. Consultation Responses
5. Background Information
i. Northern Sydney Councils and the NSROC Region
ii. Waste Data
iii. Waste Management Contracts Expiry
1. Introduction
The Northern Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (NSROC) is facilitating a process for its member Councils to identify the potential for a regional solution to waste management, for the short and long term. NSROC is comprised of seven Councils that have come together to address regional issues, work cooperatively for the benefit of the region, and advocate on regional positions and priorities. The member councils are Hornsby, Hunter’s Hill, Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, North Sydney, Ryde and Willoughby.
NSROC, on behalf of its member Councils, wishes to consult with the waste management industry and is seeking responses to this information brief that will help to:
· Identify available systems and processes that could be elements of the solutions for the disposal/processing of NSROC waste;
· Gauge the capacity and interest of the market to provide more sustainable environmental and economic regional waste solutions than can be achieved by Councils acting independently; and
· Develop a realistic regional procurement goal on which to base a strategy to procure waste management services.
The context for this pre-tender investigation is the Councils’ shared commitment to:
· reducing the amount of waste going to landfill,
· promoting the recovery and re-use of resources from the waste stream, and
· ensuring value for money is achieved in the expenditure of ratepayers’ funds.
This invitation to provide information is part of the research stage of possible procurement action and does not constitute an offer to the market for service provision or an invitation to treat. Responses will be treated as commercial-in-confidence for information only of NSROC Councils and staff.
2. Purpose of Consultation
NSROC Councils have a commitment to working together to develop more sustainable environmental, economic, social and ethical waste management outcomes.
This commitment arises from the objectives of NSROC, supported by all participating Councils, which are:
· To strengthen the role of Local Government in regional affairs, particularly where the region may be affected by Commonwealth or New South Wales Government policies.
· To ensure that as a region we are providing leadership and participating in the development of; sound urban infrastructure; economic infrastructure and employment opportunities.
· To facilitate the integration of transport, human and environmental infrastructure projects that support opportunities that meet community and business needs.
· To improve the quality and access to human services infrastructure.
· To improve the quality and efficiency of Local Government service delivery throughout the Northern Sydney Region.
· To ensure the organisation develops as a highly credible and cost-effective organisation.
In 2012 the NSROC group of Councils is investigating the potential for implementing a regional waste management solution for kerbside garbage waste streams which is consistent with the NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2011-15.
One element of this investigation is the release of this industry consultation paper, inviting written responses from industry to help NSROC understand the capability of the market to deliver a regional waste management and the availability and market requirements of different types of solutions. All waste streams are under consideration at this stage. Waste collection is not expected to be within the scope of regional procurement action in the immediate time frame.
Following a review of responses, it is expected that individual discussions will be held with representatives of some of the organisations who provide information.
NSROC Councils are interested in waste disposal solutions for both the immediate and the long term. Responses should, to the greatest extent possible, address details of the facilities, processes and
technologies offered and the types of products that would be generated (energy, compost) and recovered (paper, cardboard, plastics, metals). Questions to which a response is sought are at section (4) of this Paper.
NSROC understands that responses can only be of preliminary nature. However in making clear the volume and type of waste asset potentially available as a secure supply, we hope to create incentive for innovation by market participants.
Responses to this brief will be incorporated into the decision-making model adopted by NSROC to develop a procurement goal, with the intention of engaging with the market, at different times, for services for both the medium and long term.
Once established, the agreed goal will form the basis of a procurement strategy to seek a sustainable solution for participating Councils across economic, social, community and environmental objectives. Concurrently, Councils are consulting with the NSW Government on policy and regulations that will shape waste management in Northern Sydney, to carefully build a set of shared objectives for collaborating to meet one of the most critical of services for local government authorities – the safe and efficient disposal of residential waste. It is intended that the conclusion of the process will be regional action in waste services procurement. Diagram 1 illustrates the first stage of this process.
NSROC member Councils have worked to improve their diversion rates from landfill and have made significant progress towards meeting the NSW Government target of 66% diversion of waste from landfill by 2014. In 2011/12 member Councils have together achieved close to 56% diversion of its waste from landfill.
The experience of NSROC member councils suggests that achieving the extra diversion through more effective resource recovery or the application of technology to meet the ambitious targets of the NSW Environment Protection Authority will be considerably more difficult than have been the gains achieved so far. NSROC believes that one of the best prospects for reaching these targets is through engagement with industry to create a region-wide waste disposal solution.
Diagram 1: NSROC Waste Management Strategy Development
(i) Waste Management Objectives
Council waste management is an increasing complex area. In broad terms Councils act under the dual objectives of reducing the volumes of waste generated and maximising the potential of waste to be recycled, re-used or applied to the generation energy.
Currently, about half of the region’s waste is disposed to landfill, a disposal option that has become expensive, due to State and Commonwealth taxes and the cost of transportation, and a proportion that is out of step with the direction of environmental regulation in NSW.
Options for change are limited by the lack of waste infrastructure in the region, and the shortfall in alternative waste disposal and processing facilities in the Sydney metropolitan area. By bringing their waste volumes together, the NSROC Councils anticipate that they can achieve a better result in terms of diversion rates; as well as containing costs for the benefit of their communities.
While noting that the targets are due for revision in 2012, all NSROC Councils are committed to the current waste targets for residential waste under the NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2011-15. This target seeks diversion of 66% of total waste generated away from landfill and into recycling, recovery or the creation of beneficial products, which would be a 10% increase from the current level for the region. NSROC notes that the target is part of a State-wide policy, and believes the strongest prospects for attainment are through regional level action and measurement.
As a region, NSROC has identified waste management as one of seven priorities in the NSROC Regional Priorities document (2012), as below:
Priority 6: Develop regional sustainable waste treatment and resource recovery. Actions in pursuit of this priority include the examination of regional waste management service provision, through engagement with the private sector.
Additional Waste Management Objectives important to one or more member Councils under current plans, in summary, are to:
· Obtain optimum value for residents by entering into secure, value-for money waste processing/disposal contracts
· Enhance the convenience of service through local transfer station or processing facilities
· Recover and recycle the greatest possible quantity of materials at their highest resource value
· Support reliable markets for recovered materials, to minimise risk to Councils
· Ensure transparent information is available relating to gross and net throughputs of waste materials
· Support solutions that improve transport and material handling efficiencies to provide long-term economic and environmental outcomes
· Promote high resource recovery waste processing technologies
· Assess options for supporting proven technologies to deal with putrescible waste, including, but not exclusively, existing Alternative Waste Technologies and composting
· Minimise the incidence and impact of dumping and spills
· Promote reuse strategies through 2nd hand goods stores
· Encourage the responsible use of natural resources
· Effective communication to promote sustainable energy, water and waste practices.
3. Consultation Responses
In participating in this consultation process, waste organisations are invited to comment on both short term and long term solutions that they may offer. In all cases, supporting information will be highly valued, and form the basis for determining which respondents will be invited to participate in one-to-one discussions, prior to any market engagement process.
As noted, NSROC envisages engaging with the market as a regional group within the next two-three years. Inevitably this means that existing waste infrastructure (transfer stations, AWT facilities, landfills) will be the basis of potential solutions. However, in the longer term, as new policies and more evidence of the robustness of emerging technologies emerges, a wider range of options is anticipated.
NSROC Councils are prepared to consider innovative solutions; however, to limit risk, proven technologies will be of greatest interest. In considering the longer term, any proposed innovative solutions should at least have achieved ‘proof of concept’ status.
As NSROC is interested in solutions that minimise landfill and provide high recovery, please include evidence for the estimated percentage of resource recovery your solution would provide for typical Sydney mixed municipal waste.
Questions
1. What waste disposal/processing services can you offer the NSROC group of Councils in the short term (available from 2014-15) and the longer term (beyond ten years)?
2. What other waste management services does your company offer?
3. Where are facilities your organisation controls located? If appropriate, what is the public gate fee at facilities controlled by your organisation?
4. What experience do you have in the disposal and processing of municipal waste from the:
· Sydney Metropolitan Area
· NSW
· Australia
· Overseas jurisdictions (with comparable regulatory and waste stream environments)?
5. What are the volume requirements of your solution? What volume flexibility can you offer, if less than 100 per cent of NSROC volumes are offered to the market?
6. What are the likely comparative advantages of your solution on a value-for-money basis?
7. What evidence supports the availability of markets for the beneficial products your solution creates?
8. What technology dependencies does your solution have? What is the track record in Australia or comparable environments of the technologies you would propose for NSROC waste disposal, in the short or long term?
9. What other requirements does your solution have (such as bin/waste collection regime; provision of a site; planning and environmental approvals; construction time)?
10. What types of contracts for all or some of the components of the NSROC waste stream can you engage in (such as partnership contracts; gate fee only etc)? What risk sharing approach do you envisage?
11. What do you see as the barriers faced by waste generators and waste processors to long-term solutions for waste disposal? How can the volume offered by NSROC help to overcome these barriers? What other inputs from Councils would assist?
Responses
Responses are invited from organisations in the waste management industry able to provide disposal/processing services for all or some of the residential waste streams.
Please email responses to:
By: 20 August 2012
Inquiries should be directed to:
Janine Ricketts
NSROC Senior Projects Manager
4. Background Information
(i) Northern Sydney Councils and the NSROC Region
The NSROC region covers 680 square kilometres and is home to around 540,000 people (2011 Census). It is estimated that economic activity in the region generates $43 billion per year, and its businesses employ almost 350,000 people in over 70,000 businesses. The spread of population and the rate of population change in the preceding five years are shown in Table 1.
Table One: Population of NSROC Councils 2011 and Growth Rate from 2006
Hornsby / Hunter’s Hill / Ku-ring-gai / Lane Cove / North Sydney / Ryde / Willoughby154,576
3.6% / 13,012
-0.67% / 107,881
8.5% / 31,581
4.9% / 62,290
6.3% / 103,097
6.5% / 67,407
5.8%
Source: ABS, 2011 Census, Community Profiles T03
The region’s demographics generally reflect Sydney as a whole, although it has a greater share of population in older age groups. Lifestyle, housing and environmental diversity characterise the region, which hosts nationally significant waterways, national parks and reserves. Median incomes in the region
are higher than for Sydney generally, and unemployment is consistently lower than the rates for the city and State.
There are around 194,000 households in the region. Currently, separate houses are around 60% of tall dwellings, with the balance 25 % high density and 15 % medium density. Average household size is 2.6 people. The region’s growth target for the next 20 years of 56,000 new dwellings is equivalent to 130,000 residents, and 72,000 new jobs.
Like all parts of Sydney, pressures on transport infrastructure challenge the efficiency and amenity of the region, and impact on waste management costs. The region encompasses the major transport corridors between Sydney and the north of the State, and virtually all north and central coast passenger and road freight traffic is channelled through the F3 and into the region en route to central and western Sydney.
The challenge for the region in working as a group is to acknowledge and integrate local issues, directions and aspirations into the regional scale while respecting the integrity of local community strategic planning. By drawing out aspirations that are shared by local communities in the region, the Councils can bring scale efficiencies to service provision with flow-on impacts that benefit residents. At the same time, regional action must engage NSW agencies which own responsibility for whole-of-State policy and regulation.