Tenders for refuse job

Press, 17 March 1982, Page 6

Tenders for refuse job

Tenders will be called for the running of the Metro Resource Recovery Centre because the Project Employment Programme subsidy for the work-force there will end in five weeks.

A meeting of the Christchurch Metropolitan Refuse Disposal Committee’s resource recovery sub-com-mittee yesterday agreed that tenders be called to see if a private contractor would provide an economic alternative to using existing workers at the centre.

“We are just about breaking even at present, but that is because of the P.E.P. subsidy,” said Mr A. C. Vogan, the project engineer. “The question now is, what are we to do when the subsidy runs out on April 23. Do we use direct labour or contract labour?”

The sale of recyclable materials from the centre was bringing in $4OO a week, although this figure would increase with the expected sale of newspaper again soon. The weekly deficit was now $773, he said. “If the existing staff were

to be made interchangeable with the transfer station staff, and greater use was made of bin hire and transport firms, it would be possible to detail only two staff at a time to the centre. This would be dependent on the transfer station staff being increased by one,” Mr Vogan said. “Although the wages bill at the Metro Station would remain unaltered, the Resource Centre would make a saving of $275 a week, but plant hire and transport costs would be increased by about $lOO a week because the existing truck will not be available after April 23, necessitating employment of outside firms."

Mr Vogan had approached a number of contractors who would be interested in submitting a tender for the resource recovery job. “They would, in general, reduce the staff to as low as one, except for peak hours, and would increase the use of their large waste bins,” he said.

"The system would be cost-efficient in wages and

transport, but the service to the public might not be as good as at present.” Mr Vogan said that contractors would also like to be able to scavenge among tipped refuse to extract more recyclables.

Problems could arise, however, if the Resource Recovery Centre was to be run with existing labour at first and then it was decided to switch to a contractor. Redundancies could be created with consequential claims, unless the staff affected could be relocated elsewhere in the workforce, Mr Vogan said. Plastic containers The committee decided to write to the resource conservation officer of the Trade and Industry Department to ask for information on firms considering the reuse of a certain type of non-recyclable plastic container.

Last December, the committee wrote to the Government expressing concern about disposal of the containers.

In reply, the Minister of Health (Mr Malcolm) said that, when burned, the “P.E.T.” containers put off less smoke than other plastics and the waste gases produced were also less objectionable. The Government planned to hold talks within the next 12 months on the disposal of the containers, he said. Mr Malcolm said that he had heard of two firms which were interested in reusing the containers and this led to the committee’s decision to find out who they were.