Over the last decade, waste management has changed. We now focus on a resource recovery approach that values waste as a usable resource. Instead of burying waste in landfill, councils are looking for ways to manage waste to achieve the best balance of environmental, economic and social outcomes.

Councils are seeking to align their waste management targets with the Queensland Government by moving towards a zero-waste society and enabling a circular economy.

By exploring a combined sub-regional approach to waste management services, our councils may be able to identify waste management solutions that would not be available to each council individually.

How are we doing it?

The sub-regional alliance advertised an expression of interest process led by Logan City Council. The call for expressions of interest was advertised as follows:

• LG Tender Box (Saturday 25 May 2019)
• The Courier Mail (Saturday 25 May 2019)
• The Australian (Saturday 25 May 2019)
• The Albert News (Thursday 30 May 2019)
• Jimboomba Times (Wednesday 29 May 2019)
• QLD Times (Saturday 25 May 2019)
• Redland City Bulletin (Wednesday 29 May 2019)
• The Gatton Star (Wednesday 29 May 2019)
• The Somerset (Wednesday 29 May 2019)
• Kilcoy Sentinel (Thursday 30 May 2019)
• Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia member email (Monday 27 May 2019)

The expression of interest process seeks to determine the best services for the sub-regional alliance, for a smaller group of councils or for individual councils. There are no preconceived ideas about what the services will look like or where they may be located.

Anticipated timeline

The first stage in the process was to seek expressions of interest from the market. This opened on 25 May 2019 and closed on 20 August 2019.

The sub-regional alliance is currently assessing submissions and each council is expected to decide its next steps in mid 2020.

To protect the fairness of the process, councils are not able to provide further information during the evaluation period, nor receive or consider other proposals offering similar services to those sought in the expression of interest.

Media releases

Links to previous media release can be found here:

• SEQ councils explore new waste management options
• Expressions of interest open for combined resource recovery.

Approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)

On 20 June 2019, the ACCC authorised the sub-regional alliance to collectively tender for waste processing services. The services will be limited to the processing or disposal of resources and/or waste. They will not include waste collection services or the operation of existing waste transfer stations and tip shops.

For more information, please visit the ACCC website.

Queensland Government Waste Strategy

For information on the Queensland Government’s waste strategy and their discussion paper about energy from waste, please visit their website.