What you told us about the Bayside Waste and Recycling Centre lease

About this project

The Bayside Waste and Recycling Centre provides a valuable and much-needed service to the Bayside and neighbouring communities. The Centre offers a variety of waste and resource recovery services for both residents and commercial businesses.

The current site lease is ending in August 2023, creating an exciting opportunity to expand the service offering and reinvigorate the site.

In 2022, Council conducted a community engagement process where the community was asked to provide feedback (in the form of a survey) on how they use the Bayside Waste and Recycling Centre (e.g. what waste they deposit and how often), what their user experience has been and their suggestions for the future of the site.

The community told us that the most important services to them were:

maximising the sustainability of the centre through recycling
variety of items accepted
affordable disposal costs
quality customer service

Based on community feedback Council completed a comprehensive two stage procurement process to find a suitable operator. Following the completion of this process, Future Recycling was selected as the preferred candidate to deliver and operate the updated Centre.

What we asked

Between 17 May to 14 June 2023*, we asked our community to provide feedback via an online survey or written submission, on our proposal to grant a 20-year lease to Future Recycling Pty Ltd to operate the Bayside Waste and Recycling Centre. Under the proposed lease, Future Recycling Pty Ltd will contribute $4,698,000 to fully fund the redevelopment of the centre.

We received a total of 124 contributions, including 122 online surveys completed via Have Your Say and 2 email contributions provided through contacting the Project Officer.

We’ve summarised feedback below, or you can read the complete report.

*The initial timeline for consultation was 17 May to 28 May 2023. Consultation closed on 28 May 2023 and was reopened on 31 May 2023 for a further 15 days. The consultation period was extended as the project had been deferred to the 18 July 2023 Council meeting.

What you told us

59.8% of participants strongly or mostly supported Council to grant Future Recycling Pty Ltd a 20-year lease to upgrade and operate the Bayside Waste and Recycling Centre.
55% of participants strongly or mostly supported the proposed rental terms including a 5-year rent free period.
73% of participants strongly or mostly supported Future Recycling Pty Ltd’s proposed upgrade of the site.

58.2% of participants strongly supported or mostly supported the lease overall.

34.4% of participants mostly opposed or strongly opposed the lease overall.
Common concerns about the lease terms included the proposed 20-year term was too long and that the rent-free period should be removed.
Common concerns about the service offering included the fees being too high and fees should not be charged for recyclables such as cardboard.

What we did

The result of the community engagement process indicated a high level of support for the proposed new lease. The proposed lease will be presented to Council with a recommendation that Council approves the lease to Future Recycling Pty Ltd for the Bayside Waste and Recycling Centre in accordance with the proposal that underwent community consultation.