9 September 2022

Clarence City Council requested tenders to provide the city’s annual Hard Waste Collection service in August, however no complying responses in line with its needs, namely, the efficient collection of the waste over a short period of time were received.

Clarence City Council Mayor Councillor Doug Chipman said the council still intended to deliver the service to the community but that an agreement with a contractor for the efficient collection of the waste was required.

“Council has authorised the General Manager to seek alternative proposals from a provider to find an acceptable solution, with a plan to deliver the popular service early in 2023,” he said.

“The growth of our municipality and less contractors providing this kind of service due to the work, health and safety implications has meant that finding someone to deliver the service, as we’ve had it done over the last few years, has not been possible at this time.

“To put the growing demand in context, a total of 1,481 tonnes of hard waste was collected last year alone, and our tender process has revealed that getting a provider to deliver this over a four-week period is simply not possible.

“The General Manager and his team will be working with a supplier to develop a service and schedule that can work for the city, ensuring this popular service is carried out early in the new year.”

“We think an early 2023 collection could be good timing for when people have that summer/Christmas clean out.”

Council has provided annual Hard Waste Collection Service to Clarence residents for over 30 years with the service involving collection of large items that are not suitable for collection in the normal waste collection streams, including white goods and electronic waste.

There has been a steady but significant increase in annual tonnes collected during the hard waste collection which was just 671 tonnes in 2017.

Council said it would provide an update on the timing of the service later in the year once an agreement has been reached with a contractor.

This collection service is unrelated to council’s normal kerbside collection services and in recent years has been undertaken by a separate contractor.