SDE confident of recycling future
Southland disAbility Enterprises is now looking to the Invercargill City Council and other potential recycling partners with its WasteNet contract set to end on June 30.
Following a WasteNet Advisory Group meeting last week, Invercargill councillor Alex Crackett, who chairs the group, confirmed the Invercargill, Southland and Gore councils could not find common ground on its shared recycling contract and will now go it alone.
The current recycling processing contract between WasteNet and Southland disAbility Enterprises will end on June 30 with the three councils now needing to sort what to do with their recycling in the future.
Despite SDE’s WasteNet contract ending SDE chairman Stephen O’Connor welcomed last week’s confirmation.
SDE will now work with the Invercargill City Council which sided with SDE, despite fellow Southland councils wanting to award the contract to Smart Environmental.
O’Connor said they would work with the Invercargill council on terms and conditions for processing the city’s recycling from July this year.
They are also in negotiation with other organisations who are seeking solutions to their recycling processing, O’Connor said. ‘‘While it is disappointing that the Southland and Gore District Councils have chosen to pursue other options – including landfill – it has been obvious for some time that these organisations were not prepared to work with SDE, and therefore the functionality of WasteNet in regard to the recycling processing solution was beyond repair.’’
O’Connor said SDE has continued to perform above expectations around its WasteNet contract obligations, despite the ever-changing and challenging recyclable product market.
He added SDE remained in a good financial position.
SDE employs people with disabilities, with most of them involved in processing recycling at its Invercargill plant. ‘‘Our people remain our priority and are a particular focus at the present time, as like all employers, we consider the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic,’’ O’Connor said.