13 August 2008
Transpacific Cleanaway has won a council tender to deliver new garbage and recycling services across more of the Tamworth Regional Council area from late next year.
Cleanaway was recommended for the new TRC contract after an exhaustive 21-month future services preparation and assessment program by a special council working group.
This included waste services staff, councillors, and community and industry figures involved in research, consultations and evaluations.
The new contract is due to begin in September next year and has been decided on the final basis of greatest overall value to TRC residents.
TRC residents will get new recycling services and new recycling bins and a significant extension of the current service area.
Under the new deal, some areas that have never had recycling will get it from next year and an extra 700 new properties will also get basic garbage pick-ups for the first time.
The working group also decided that the new waste management contract should include a new recycling bin system rather than the old crate city residents have been using for the past decade or more.
This time around, there will be no lifting involved, because TRC wants to see an industry standard wheelie bin system dedicated solely to recyclables. The recycling bin will be suitable for containing paper, cardboard, glass bottles and plastics in one container. The co-mingled container is common to metropolitan areas.
TRC waste services manager John Davis says the new contract will provide an integrated waste management system for the community that will still be relevant and appropriate for the next 10 years.
Mr Davis says a special working group has been looking at community needs, cost effectiveness, sustainability and environmental standards as a benchmark for the tender request.
This has included detailed discussion on the sort of services TRC needs and the extension of some recycling to areas that have not had it before.
Residents outside the city area of Tamworth, at Manilla, Barraba, Nundle, and along some main rural roads like Garthowen, Inlet, Gaol Creek, Duri, Timbumburi and Ogunbil will get recycling services. Wherever garbage collections occur, so will recycling services under the new deal.
There will also be an extension of the green waste and household pick-up services. The current contract in the majority of the TRC area has been held by JR Richards and Sons for about the last nine years.