Woden Recycling Depot FAIL

rigseismic67 said :

These recycling depots are sure to close due to the amount of other rubbish left their by fools.
Use them why we can

As much as I hate to say it, but I think you could be right. Wouldn’t surprise me at all.

I guess the people who wrote the contract for the council didn’t do too good a job.

However the cynic in me suggests that it’s not that uncommon that things are set up to fail by the govt of the day either to (1) stop providing service or (2) sell it off to private enterprise who can all of a sudden do a slightly better job.

Or this is just a contractor who has bitten off more than they can chew in their eagerness to get the councils business,

IrishPete said :

Sorry, but this is old news if you read the newspaper:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/recycling-overflowing-at-drop-off-centres-20131106-2×052.html

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-recycling-centres-struggle-to-meet-demand-20131126-2y6y8.html

IP

maxblues said :

midlife said :

Same situation at the Belconnen depot last week. Remember all that money the government saved when they let the new contract? Commercial reality dictates that to reduce prices then services must be reduced or workers should be screwed. The new contractor seems to have admirably ticked the boxes on both these counts. When will the government accept that cheaper is not better? As a manager of tender processes and evaluations it always seemed to be the cheapest that won the contract unless there was a major or critical problem with the tenderer. It is a brave public servant (or a sucker for punishment) who tells their superiors that the cheapest tender did not win.

There is a design fault with the Belconnen depot. Some of the recycling depots allow access to both sides of the cardboard cage, but at Belco the cage can only be accessed from one side. Sure some people are too lazy to throw the cardboard right across but some don’t have the strength to do so…which means the loading side becomes blocked before the cage is really full. Sure it would cost money to centralise the cage but I could make a really bad pun about the ACT govt, money and waste.

The photo in the Canberra Times article illustrates my point about the design fault at the Belco depot.

Sorry, but this is old news if you read the newspaper:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/recycling-overflowing-at-drop-off-centres-20131106-2×052.html

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-recycling-centres-struggle-to-meet-demand-20131126-2y6y8.html

IP

A new contract was signed this week for collection at these centres.
The contract can be found at http://www.procurement.act.gov.au/contracts/contracts_register/contracts/2013.22102.210

That ABN is registered to Entity name: THE TRUSTEE FOR THE GARY BURGESS FAMILY TRUST & THE TRUSTEE FOR THE MARK BURGESS FAMILY TRUST

Trading name From
BURGESS HORTICULTURAL SERVICES 28 May 2010
Burhor 28 May 2010
Source-http://abr.business.gov.au/SearchByAbn.aspx?SearchText=66+585+502+865

I wonder if the previous contractor thought f it, we just won’t collect from now on.

midlife said :

Same situation at the Belconnen depot last week. Remember all that money the government saved when they let the new contract?

I stand to be corrected but think you will find the recycling depots along with the Micthell transfer station are not part of the new contract. The new contract was for the roadside collection of domestic garbage and recycling.

Remondis (who brought the rubbish collection side of Thiess in 2012) certainly has the contact for Mitchell and think they have it for the recycling depots too.

Good rant though.

midlife said :

Same situation at the Belconnen depot last week. Remember all that money the government saved when they let the new contract? Commercial reality dictates that to reduce prices then services must be reduced or workers should be screwed. The new contractor seems to have admirably ticked the boxes on both these counts. When will the government accept that cheaper is not better? As a manager of tender processes and evaluations it always seemed to be the cheapest that won the contract unless there was a major or critical problem with the tenderer. It is a brave public servant (or a sucker for punishment) who tells their superiors that the cheapest tender did not win.

There is a design fault with the Belconnen depot. Some of the recycling depots allow access to both sides of the cardboard cage, but at Belco the cage can only be accessed from one side. Sure some people are too lazy to throw the cardboard right across but some don’t have the strength to do so…which means the loading side becomes blocked before the cage is really full. Sure it would cost money to centralise the cage but I could make a really bad pun about the ACT govt, money and waste.

These recycling depots are sure to close due to the amount of other rubbish left their by fools.
Use them why we can

I was at Woden’s depot yesterday afternoon and it was a mess overflowing across the carpark. Any fool would know that there would be extra pre Christmas cardboard that they should have catered for.

Even worse though, was the amount of cushion foam, polystyrene and plastic in the cardboard area. I wish now that I had taken a photo.

Yes, it would have made a very attractive poster-size artwork.

Anyway, once the facilities are too full to get into, people will stop using them, thus containing costs.

It’s not a Christmas thing. Similar story about a month ago.

Same situation at the Belconnen depot last week. Remember all that money the government saved when they let the new contract? Commercial reality dictates that to reduce prices then services must be reduced or workers should be screwed. The new contractor seems to have admirably ticked the boxes on both these counts. When will the government accept that cheaper is not better? As a manager of tender processes and evaluations it always seemed to be the cheapest that won the contract unless there was a major or critical problem with the tenderer. It is a brave public servant (or a sucker for punishment) who tells their superiors that the cheapest tender did not win.