Zero cost, same result but council knows better

If Auckland Council wants to save ratepayers some money it should take a serious look at its waste services.

The place to start is a well-meaning but expensive push to expand a network of community-run recycling centres. These would be a necessary expense — if not for the fact that the private sector is already producing the results the council wants, but at zero cost to ratepayers.

My company, Northland Waste Limited, has for 20 years leased and operated a council-owned waste transfer station at Lawrie Rd near Warkworth. Auckland Council charges zero rent and, in return, we maintain the facility at our cost and operate a user-pays recycling centre. The council incurs compliance costs monitoring the station but the net cost is zero because we pay monitoring charges back to the council.

We are achieving a diversion rate (the proportion of waste diverted from landfill to recycling) similar to those achieved by community-run waste transfer stations in the Auckland region. Unlike them, we cost council nothing.

But if you think the council would want to work with a private operator that delivers good environmental results at no cost to ratepayers, you will be disappointed. The council has announced it intends to put the Lawrie Rd site out to tender. We are unlikely to enter a tender as we own an alternative site nearby. If another operator can operate the site more efficiently and with better results than we can, that is the free market at work and we welcome that. But that is not what is happening.

We have been told by council officials, and they have confirmed publicly, their intention is to establish a community recycling centre at Lawrie Rd as part of the council’s expansion of the network. There are four community recycling centres operating in Auckland, at Devonport, Helensville, Waitakere and Waiuku. Over time, the council hopes to have up to 20 sites across the region.

Of those currently operating, Waiuku is often cited as the flagship. According to council officials, Waiuku achieves a 70 per cent diversion rate but does not accept any kerbside and commercial refuse. Measured on the same basis, our own operations achieve the same results.

The council paid Waiuku Zero Waste Ltd over $270,000 in the 2015/16 financial year. Global Action Plan Oceania, the charity behind the Devonport Recycling Centre, received a $261,000 council grant in the 2015/16 financial year. The grants received by the others are not publicly available.

Meanwhile, the council pays Northland Waste nothing to achieve similar — if not better — diversion results.

One could understand the communityrun network being expanded where there is a market gap or market failure. But if the likes of Northland Waste and other private operators are achieving excellent results at no cost to ratepayers, why replicate that at considerable expense?

There are other aspects of the Lawrie Rd site which should also be concerning to all ratepayers. The site needs upgrading. It is built on an old landfill and needs considerable investment. Northland Waste estimates it needs $2 million to modernise. If we had a secure, long-term lease, we would make that investment at no cost to the ratepayer. This offer was made in writing two years ago to the council but we never received a response. As Northland Waste is likely to shift, the council will have to find that money.

The other point is the inconvenience. As a waste operator through Northland, Auckland, the Kapiti Coast and Wellington, we are acutely aware that people do not like living next to landfills and transfer stations. If we shift our facility from Lawrie Rd to our alternative site, Warkworth residents will soon have to put up with two waste transfer stations within a few kilometres of each other. They are unlikely to be happy with that.

The council needs to rethink the rollout of the waste management strategy. The private waste sector is very efficient. While other councils work in partnership with the private sector, Auckland Council sees itself as inherently more efficient than the private sector when it comes to waste services — as its officials claimed in a recent report.

Mayor Phil Goff has initiated a review of waste services to see if they deliver value for money. This is a welcome first step. But as with previous council reviews designed and led by the same officials and consultants who conceived its approach, we suspect the last thing the review will do is identify savings. This is a council which does less with more.