Waste and Recycling Procurement and Contracts
A practical guide to reviewing your waste and recycling services, going to tender, and holding a contractor to what they signed. Prepared by Rawtec for Green Industries SA.
Summary published
Most organisations sign a waste and recycling contract and then don’t look at it again until it expires. In the meantime, bins go out half empty, service levels drift away from what each site needs, and nobody has the data to argue for a better price.
These guidelines set out how and when to consider changes to your collection services and contracts, and how to prepare tender documents that get you a better financial, contractual and environmental result.
before contract expiry is when to start reviewing
providers is the minimum to approach for quotes
to allow suppliers to respond to a tender
contract term that tends to give the best outcomes
Four things worth getting right
Start six months before the contract expires.
Six months out is the last point at which a review still has options. It leaves time to pull your service data together, test the market, and give the incumbent the notice the contract requires — usually at least one month — without being pushed into a rollover you didn’t choose.
Not every organisation needs a full tender.
For a small organisation with two or three sites, going direct to a minimum of three providers for quotes is usually enough. Past that, or where sites sit on separate contracts with different end dates, a tender is what gets you comparable pricing and one set of terms.
Group your sites before you go to market.
Organisations with multiple sites on separate contracts almost always pay more than they need to. Procuring together gives you the volume, one reporting stream, and a single renewal date to manage instead of a rolling calendar of them.
Specify what you want measured, not just what you want collected.
A specification that asks only for bins and lifts gets you bins and lifts. Ask for the cost breakdown, the destination of each stream, tonnages, and contamination rates, and you get a contract you can actually manage.
Indicative timeline for tendering waste and recycling services
The sequence below is the one set out in the guide. The timings overlap, so read it as a working backwards from the contract end date.
Review the current contract and the services you actually receive.
Develop the tender specification and contract documents before release.
Advertise the tender.
Suppliers prepare and lodge responses. Respond to their queries as they come in.
Assess the tenders and seek clarification where you need it.
Give the current contractor notice.
Award the contract and negotiate the final terms.
Hold the first contract review, while service levels are still easy to correct.
What to put in the specification
These are the requirements the guide recommends including. Each one exists to make a quote comparable or a contract enforceable.
Costs split out by bin, by lift, by tonnage and by any levies, so you can see what changes when your volumes change.
Where each stream actually goes, named. Not “recycled”, but the facility and the process.
Tonnages by stream, contamination rates, and how often you get the report.
Bin colours and signage to Australian Standard 4123.7-2006, so your bins match what people already recognise.
A three to four year term, with extension options structured up front — 3 + 2, or 4 + 1 + 1 — so a good contractor can be kept without a new process.
Steps in the tender process
- Identify the services required
- Prepare the tender specification and contract documents
- Advertise the tender
- Respond to queries
- Assess the tenders
- Award the contract and negotiate
- Manage the contract on an ongoing basis
The guide also covers council waste and recycling services, working with cleaning contractors, and what building and facility managers need to handle differently.
The full document is available as a PDF.
Working on waste and recycling procurement?
We prepared these guidelines for Green Industries SA. If your organisation is working through a review, a specification or a contract and you want to talk it through, get in touch.