ACCC allows council waste management plan

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will allow four southern Sydney councils to provide residual waste transfer, processing and disposal services in their local government areas via a joint tender and contract process.

The councils of Hurstville, Kogarah, Rockdale and Sutherland have designed the arrangements to assist their goals of meeting the NSW government's waste avoidance and resource recovery targets and addressing the increasing costs of landfill disposal in the greater Sydney region. The councils anticipate that a joint tender will attract investment in a new facility to process their waste using alternative waste technology.

"The ACCC considers the proposed arrangements are likely to reduce the total costs of AWT waste management services to the councils and their ratepayers by enabling them to obtain these services more efficiently," acting ACCC chairman Peter Kell said yesterday.

"The arrangements are also likely to stimulate competition in the local waste management services market and benefit the local environment by recovering resources from the councils' waste streams."

Without authorisation from the ACCC, the councils would risk breaching the Trade Practices Act 1974 by entering into agreements with competitors that might reduce competition in the relevant market.

Authorisation provides protection from court action for conduct that might otherwise raise concerns under the competition provisions of the Act. Broadly, the ACCC may grant an authorisation when it is satisfied that the public benefit from the conduct outweighs any public detriment.

The ACCC's determination will be available from the ACCC website www.accc.gov.au/AuthorisationsRegister.