Attachments of Ordinary Council Meeting

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Document Preparation	1
Introduction	2
Summary of current Issues	3
Mission Statement	5
Strategic Objectives	5
Key Focus Areas	6
Strategic Actions	8
Assessment of Strategic Actions	12

DOCUMENT PREPARATION

DATE	VERSION	PREPARED FOR:	PREPARED BY:

4^th February 2019		On-site Councillor Workshop	Wright Corporate Strategy

8^th April 2019		Wayne Bennett	Wright Corporate Strategy

INTRODUCTION

This document, Stage 2 Issues and Actions Report, follows on from the Stage 1 Situation Review and Waste Sites Assessments, taking up Issues identified and developing strategic Actions for positive change. From both Stage 1 and 2, Wright Corporate Strategy will develop Council’s new Waste Strategy and its Action Plan, whilst a financial assessment of the Strategy’s impact will be prepared within the project’s final stage. Summary content from Stages 1 and 2 will be presented within the Waste Strategy document.

Stage 2 commences with development of the new Strategy’s Mission Statement and Objectives using “guiding principles” discussed and developed within the Councillor Workshop. During this workshop separate Councillor Information material relating to Issues identified and draft Actions was provided to inform and guide discussion. A two week period following the Workshop was also provided for further distillation of thoughts and feed-back, with all input and feedback incorporated into this Report.

Strategic Actions to be delivered by the new Waste Strategy have been prepared and assessed herein within strategic Key Focus Areas. These Areas were developed by Wright Corporate Strategy in consideration of Stages 1 and 2, prevailing waste policy and experience gained, describing principal components for change for Council. Assessment of Actions produced a relative ranking, suggested by Wright Corporate Strategy to provide priority for delivery within the Strategy’s Action Plan.

Council recognises the disparity in the operating standards of its waste sites, service provision and fees charged between the former Cootamundra and Gundagai Shire Councils, and wishes the new Waste Strategy to consider this also.

SUMMARY OF CURRENT ISSUES

A summary of Issues identified from the Situation Review and Waste Site Assessments is presented below. These were presented and discussed during the Councillor Workshop.

Table 1. Summary of Issues identified with current waste services

Operational Area	Issue identified

Road transport of waste and recycling Waste Site Operations Contracted Services	1. Putrescible waste periodically transported from Gundagai to EcoFill, Bald Hill in un-compacted bulk transport 2. Some inefficient “runs” of Council kerbside collection vehicles identified 3. Lack of cost/benefit assessment of operating own kerbside collection vehicles 4. Five waste transport providers provide services within six different arrangements 5. Some waste site bin servicing without proof or requirement and/or recently reviewed/re-negotiated agreements 1. Gundagai site has numerous, significant residual and long-standing high and medium environmental risks requiring attention 2. Lack of plant at Gundagai site hampers resource recovery operations 3. Multiple waste site daily management models used across network 4. Site Overseer for major projects does not currently report to the Waste Services Manager 5. Semi-controlled regional transfer station access – site security issues 6. Lack of filling plan and evidence of “cells” at Cootamundra landfill – wasteful and inefficient, reducing long-term capacity and increasing future maintenance 7. Inconsistent bulk bin/MGB supply at regional transfer stations 8. Unknown remaining useful asset life of own landfills and uncertainty of total useful life remaining at Bald Hill 9. Landfill cell planning, including absence of a Landfill Environmental Management Plan for Cootamundra landfill 10. Receival of liquid waste (drilling mud) at Cootamundra and Gundagai (classification and source unknown) 11. Inability of some bores to provide groundwater data to meet licence conditions at Cootamundra 12. Lack of regulatory compliance evidence of composted greenwaste with EPA Resource Recovery Exemption/Order requirements at Cootamundra 13. Operating conditions at Stockinbingal and Wallendbeen landfills, including site access to Wallendbeen 14. Current stockpile management of kerbside food & garden waste delivered to Gundagai 1. Expired term agreement with Elouera for MRF 2. Signed CDS entitlements agreement for 5 years with Elouera although agreement to operate MRF expired 3. Evidence of lack of site management at Cootamundra within Elouera agreement terms 4. The MRF plant is aged and partly owned by both Council and Elouera, posing potential issues of ongoing obligations and responsibilities, process train upgrades etc. 5. Inconsistent entitlement to “salvaging” across waste sites
Waste Site Network/Management Recycling Rate	1. Relative over-servicing in Wallendbeen and Stockinbingal areas 2. Potential re-purposing of former Cootamundra Shire Council regional landfills possible 3. Relative under-servicing in Adjungbilly area 4. Site visitation rates may be under-reported 5. Significant operational control/management issues at Cootamundra landfill – significant, multiple risks to Council 6. Security and illegal dumping issues at regional transfer stations with 24/7 key access 7. Evidence of ongoing closure maintenance required at former landfill sites of Coolac, Muttama and Nangus 8. Risks of cash handling and ongoing rotation of operational staff re under/non-charging and experience to prevent illegal dumping 1. Domestic recycling rate assessed as 58% - state target 70% 2. Commercial and Industrial recycling rate assessed as 7% - target 70% 3. Construction and Demolition recycling rate assessed as 21% - state target 80% 4. Absence of C+D sorting at Cootamundra landfill 5. Absence of waste sorting at Cootamundra transfer station 6. Kerbside bin “leakage” and “contamination” issues 7. Cootamundra township not collecting food waste

Financial Sustainability	1. Absence of detailed asset use planning 2. Capital Renewal expenses from the Asset Management Plan are reportedly unbudgeted 3. Absence of a detailed long-term Capital Plan or Long Term Financial Plan 4. Grant Funding already provided to Council – reported past-project underspending and uncompleted works, and/or lack of grant acquittal requirements 5. Inconsistent annual charges and site fees between former LGAs for kerbside services, site disposal fees and components of the DWMC 6. Lack of evidence of “whole of life” costs to operate domestic and non-domestic components of services, and hence determination of “reasonable” DWMC in line with DLG Rating and Revenue Raising Manual

Kerbside Services	1. Inconsistent kerbside services between former LGAs
Illegal Dumping	1. Partial use of EPA RID Online 2. Partial reported documentation of real costs 3. Impact on operational budget 4. Absence of prevention strategy 5. Periodic and ongoing dumping of white goods and bulky items at regional transfer stations

MISSION STATEMENT

Wright Corporate Strategy have prepared Council’s Mission Statement for its new Waste Strategy as:

“Provision of sustainable services focussed on the benefits of increased resource recovery and recycling supported by local processing and re-purposing of waste”

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

The Waste Strategy’s Objectives, below, were developed to guide the structure of Actions within Key Focus Areas. They represent the corner-stones of the new Waste Strategy, supporting the Mission Statement and providing minimum criteria, or requirements, for the Strategy to deliver.

The three (3) strategic Objectives to deliver the new Waste Strategy have been developed as:

Ø Increase resource recovery and recycling with compliant, best practice operations at waste sites, moving towards the State’s recycling targets

Ø Support employment and local opportunity to transform and repurpose waste

Ø Provide cost effective and equitable waste services which best-fit the whole community, applying full cost recovery and user pays principles within the determination of reasonable fees and charges

KEY FOCUS AREAS

Seven (7) KFAs were developed to align with important regional strategy and State waste policy. This included the Themes of the Riverina Eastern Regional Organisation of Councils’ (REROC) Regional Waste Strategy and the Key Result Areas (KRAs) of the Environment Protection Authority’s (EPA) NSW Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Strategy 2014-21 (WARR Strategy).

Including the Themes of the Regional Waste Strategy supports and encourages coordinated regional efforts, aligning the strategic framework of the new Waste Strategy with that of the State’s makes reporting change simple whilst also making the most of grant funding opportunities provided by the EPA’s Waste Less, Recycle More (WLRM) program. Alignment is demonstrated within a two-step process within Tables 2 and 3, below.

Table 2. Alignment of CGRC’s Waste Strategy Key Focus Areas with Themes of REROC’s Regional Waste Strategy

CGRC Key Focus Area	REROC Regional Strategy Themes
Deliver cost-effective waste services	4.1 Explore the opportunity to establish regional collection and processing facilities 4.2 Promote investment in regional and rural infrastructure by all tiers of government and private enterprise

Review contract services arrangements	3.1 Implement regional solutions for e-waste 3.2 Facilitate and coordinate regional collections of metal waste 4.1 Explore the opportunity to establish regional collection and processing facilities 4.2 Promote investment in regional and rural infrastructure by all tiers of government and private enterprise 4.3 Work with Councils to implement best practice approaches to the operation of waste facilities
Avoid and reduce waste generation	1.1 Yours2Take becomes the first stop for households wanting to dispose of waste that has a reuse value
Increase recycling rates	1.2 Increase the opportunities for households to recycle organic waste 1.3 Increase levels of recyclables collected from households in the REROC region 2.1 Increase in usage by businesses of the Yours2Take website 2.2 Encourage the commercial and industrial sector to more effectively manage waste and resource recovery
	3.1 Implement regional solutions for e-waste 3.2 Facilitate and coordinate regional collections of metal waste 3.4 Monitor developments for the disposal of other problem wastes

Engage the whole community Ensure financial sustainability of waste services	6.1 Promote sustainable living options to the community 6.2 Increase councillor and council staff awareness…. None Apply

Ensure regulatory compliance	None Apply

Table 3. Alignment of CGRC’s Waste Strategy Key Focus Areas with Key Result Areas of the NSW WARR Strategy

CGRC Key Focus Area	WARR Strategy Key Result Areas and targets
Deliver cost-effective waste services	None Apply

Review contract services arrangements	None Apply
Avoid and reduce waste generation	Target for reducing waste generation By 2021–22, reduce the rate of waste generation per capita
Increase recycling rates	Target for increasing recycling By 2021–22, increase recycling rates for: • Municipal solid waste from 52% (in 2010–11) to 70% • Commercial and industrial waste from 57% (in 2010–11) to 70% • Construction and demolition waste from 75% (in 2010–11) to 80%.

Engage the whole community	None Apply

Ensure financial sustainability of waste services	None Apply

Ensure regulatory compliance of sites and operations	None Apply

Illegal dumping and littering were not reported by Council or assessed within Stage 1 as requiring a Key Focus Area of their own, and have instead incorporated within the Engage the whole community Area. Council is reportedly taking significant steps to utilise RID Online whilst Actions for Regional Transfer Stations and waste sites in general address principal concerns of reported dumping and assessed litter.

STRATEGIC ACTIONS

In total, 19 Actions were developed. A summary description of each Key Focus Area and Action is provided below. Each will be described in greater detail within the new Waste Strategy.

A subjective multi criteria analysis (MCA) was used to sort Actions on the basis of their assessed ability to firstly deliver the strategic Objectives and secondly, the magnitude of positive change expected to be delivered by them from the perspective of reducing waste to landfill. The results of this process were used by Wright Corporate Strategy to recommend Council’s priority for delivery within the Strategy’s Action Plan.

Within the MCA, each Key Focus Area was firstly assigned a score of 1-3 in accordance with its delivery of the three strategic Objectives, before each Action was assigned a score of 1-5 on the assessed quantum of each to deliver positive change. Multiplying the Key Focus Area score with the score of each Action produced a weighted score, with higher weighted scores assigned the highest priority.

KFA 1: Deliver cost-effective waste services – focusses on opportunity to carry out services more efficiently and/or for lower cost, and includes daily operations and management of waste sites within the network, including use of kerbside collection vehicles:

1. Waste site operations

Ø Develop Filling Plans and evaluate options for higher compaction of residual waste within Cootamundra Landfill to reduce consumption of void space

Ø Evaluate options for single-entity daily management across the waste sites network, retaining experience gained and minimising operational risk

Ø Assign management of major site development projects jointly to Waste Services Manager to ensure development in accordance with planning

Ø Improve security at sites, especially Regional Transfer Stations, by reviewing options for keyless, personal, logged access

Ø Develop site plans for Cootamundra and Gundagai sites to facilitate one-way traffic flow dropping off recyclables before disposing of mixed waste for sorting and non-recyclable waste for disposal

Ø Assess optimal requirement for waste and recycling bins, including their size, number, access height and ease of opening for residents, capacity and servicing frequency at Regional Transfer Stations

Ø Prepare a business case for compaction of waste from Gundagai landfill to Bald Hill

2. Waste sites network

Ø Prepare a business case for development of a new Regional Transfer Station at Adjungbilly

KFA 2: Develop contract services arrangements – develop new tendering and service engagement agreements for operational requirements including:

1. MRF operations

Ø Prepare tendering and a new commercial engagement document in consideration of asset ownership, repairs and upgrades, risk management, change of operations to meet new markets and/or new kerbside services (such as a dedicated paper/cardboard service and/or bagged soft plastics), income sharing options (including market value for recyclates, scrap metal and other salvaged recyclables and refunds for eligible containers under the Container Deposit Scheme), options to add secondary processing (such as glass crushing) to make more use of low value recyclates locally, options to also process local problem wastes (such as mattresses and agricultural bags), and day labour and management options for the MRF in consideration of requirements for these elsewhere on-site (such as sorting waste at the Waste Transfer Station) and at other waste sites

2. Transport of waste and recycling

Ø Supply and collection of bins from Regional Transfer Stations

KFA 3: Avoid and reduce waste generation – support and encourage both the avoidance and reduction of waste generation:

1. Avoid generation of waste

Ø Encourage use of the regional Yours2Take program within the community, as well as local buy, swap, sell initiatives including backyard sale trails and mobile phone apps

2. Reduce generation of waste

Ø Encourage participation by the community in State initiatives such as Love Food, Hate Waste and provide education resources to stimulate initiatives such as home composting

KFA 4: Increase recycling rates – increase recycling rates from kerbside and self-haul waste, simultaneously reducing waste disposed to landfill, in particular organic waste, including:

1. Sort self-haul waste

Ø Sort residential and small commercial vehicle waste delivered to Cootamundra Waste Transfer Station, as well as mixed commercial and industrial (C+I) and construction and demolition (C+D) waste delivered to Cootamundra and Gundagai sites

2. Kerbside bin system

Ø Standardise bin size for residual waste

Ø Deliver a regional FOGO kerbside service for residents and commercial premises

Ø Evaluate provision of a fourth dedicated paper/cardboard kerbside bin with a corresponding decrease in collection frequency for co-mingled recyclables

3. Regional Recycling Hub/Resource Recovery Park

Ø Prepare a concept plan to develop the Cootamundra site to facilitate secondary waste processing and re-purposing on site, encouraging both specialist technology providers to manage select waste streams under individual commercial arrangements (such as tyre, soft plastics and glass) and local community groups to provide value-add services to re-purpose/up-cycle waste (such as waste soil, timber, building materials, clothes)

KFA 5: Engage the whole community – actively engage all sectors of the community to participate in waste reduction, recycling, waste sorting initiatives and protection of the environment within the new Waste Strategy, including:

1. Community waste awareness and education program

Ø Deliver a program for all sectors of the community which both reduces the generation of waste and increases its separation at source, using tools such as community leaders, waste audits, policy development and reward/incentives to actively engage the community

2. Illegal dumping and litter management

Ø Engage with State and regional initiatives to reduce illegal dumping and away-from-home littering

KFA 6: Ensure financial sustainability of waste services – review assets, services, expenses and income streams, developing long-term plans, including:

1. Income

Ø Review sources and magnitude of income from waste processing, ensuring its consideration within long-term services agreements

2. Full cost of services

Ø Assess full cost of waste services and operations, including full operational cost and asset whole-of-life (WoL) expenses, ensuring consideration of fair and reasonable apportionment to service provision to domestic and “other” sources, and remaining useful asset life, and regulatory compliance and risk management requirements of both open and closed sites

3. Asset planning

Ø Prepare a detailed Asset Management Plan (AMP) and long-term asset use plans for waste sorting, waste disposal, resource recovery and recycling, including development of a Regional Recycling Hub/Resource Recovery Park at Cootamundra

4. Fees and charges

Ø Determine region-wide, equitable fees and charges for kerbside services and self-haul waste, along with a planned, step-wise implementation period

5. Long-term financial plan

Ø Prepare a 20 year plan using data and information from 1-4 above, projecting balance of the Waste Reserve, or similar, in consideration of a risk-based minimum balance approach, ensuring delivery of the new Waste Strategy is adequately funded

6. Grant funding

Ø Align capital works budgets and select components of operational budgets with the Waste Less, Recycle More project funding opportunities

KFA 7: Ensure regulatory compliance of sites and operations – plan and deliver improvements to waste sites and waste transformation processes, including:

1. Waste sites

Ø Meet minimum standards of regulatory compliance for site and site activities (such as the legal defence for unlicensed sites, requirements of compliance and annual reporting for Cootamundra, development and use of an Environmental Management Plan for Cootamundra, and legal receival/management of all waste types at all sites, including liquid waste)

2. Waste processing

Ø Review options for processing FOGO from region-wide collections at Cootamundra, including compliance with relevant Resource Recovery Order and Exemption requirements, and ensure processing of other waste streams for recycling (such as self-haul, clean greenwaste and clean concrete/brick/tile) similarly meets minimum requirements for compliance with relevant Resource Recovery Orders and Exemptions

ASSESSMENT OF STRATEGIC ACTIONS

Figure 1 below summarises outcomes from the MCA. Delivery priority is in the order of 1 (first) to 9 (last) as indicated within the last column.

Figure 1. Assessed priority of Action delivery within the Waste Strategy’s Action Plan