BendigoWeekly www.bendigoweekly.com.au
ISSUE 822 FRIDAY, JULY 12, 2013
UP FOR GRABS Now we are 16
DAY SIFT: VATMI employee Linda Holm sorts recyclables. Photo: BILL CONROY
Disability Enterprise employees on tenterhooks as council puts waste recycling program out to tender By ROSEMARY SORENSEN THE Disability Enterprise that manages recycling services for Greater Bendigo council is fighting to keep its contract. VATMI, which merged with Sandhurst Enterprises in 1986, has held the contract for Recyclable Collection in Bendigo for the past decade. It employs 37 people, most of whom have disabilities, in its plant on Piper Lane in East Bendigo Council has called for tenders for the contract. The deadline for lodgement is Thursday, July 25. The tender document rates “Financial benefits – relative cost to council� at 50 per cent of the
evaluation criteria. “Social procurement outcomes�, which means the “creation of positive social outcomes�, is rated at 10 per cent. Businessman and disability service advocate Leon Scott said high competition from compa-
we don’t know,� Mr Scott said. “But if we’re interested in employment for people with disabilities, if we think it’s important to give people the respect of a job, then we need to consider the role of a service like this.� Earlier this year, VATMI lost
The local people here are doing as well as they can, to keep the prices down nies in Melbourne which have automated “sortation�, is putting pressure on the Bendigo-based VATMI service. “The local people here are doing as well as they can, to keep the prices down, but whether they can match these big firms,
the recycling tender in Stawell, when the Northern Grampians Shire Council awarded the contract to a Warrnambool company. VATMI was forced to close the facility there last month, with the loss of five permanent and 15 “income-supported� staff.
Greater Bendigo council is currently developing a Waste and Resource Strategy to tackle the rising cost of management, and to “respond to a shifting view to see waste as a valuable resource�. The provision of garbage and recycling collection accounts for more than 10 per cent of the total council budget. The number of household recycle bins has risen from 42,250 n 2009, to 46,950 in June this year. As well as demonstrating experience and capability, tenders for the recycling contract are required to show they partner with local businesses and suppliers who are based in Bendigo and the “immediate neighbouring municipalities�.
The Bendigo Weekly celebrates 16 years. We are proud to be Bendigo’s most read newspaper.
Doney First Look The second in our series of Allan Doney’s never-before-seen historic photographs of Bendigo. Pages 24, 25.
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