The ACCC has issued a determination granting authorisation to Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group (MWRRG), and a group of 30 councils located in metropolitan Melbourne (collectively, the Applicants), to conduct a collaborative tender process for the procurement of sorting services for commingled recyclable waste collected from residents’ kerbsides. This may include the upgrade of existing facilities or construction of new facilities for sorting recyclable waste.
In this context, ‘sorting’ refers to the various processes used at Material Recovery Facilities to separate commingled recyclable waste into different specific types of materials, such as paper, plastic, aluminium and glass.
The ACCC has decided to grant authorisation for 12 months to complete the tender process, negotiate and execute contract(s), and a further 20 years to give effect to contract(s) for the supply of sorting services to the councils, until 7 March 2041.
The ACCC considers the Proposed Conduct is likely to result in public benefits in the form of transaction costs savings, increased operational efficiencies, environmental benefits and increased competition. The ACCC also considers that the Proposed Conduct is likely to result in minimal public detriment due to a number of mitigating factors, including that the tender process will be competitive and transparent, the majority of potential suppliers of sorting services operate either nationally and internationally and there will be future opportunities for suppliers to provide sorting services in Australia and elsewhere.
Authorisation provides businesses with legal protection for arrangements that may otherwise risk breaching the law but are not harmful to competition and/or are likely to result in overall public benefits.
Further information about the ACCC’s decision is available on the public register at Metropolitan Waste and Resource Recovery Group and Ors (recycling sorting).