THREE permanent and two casual staff have been left without jobs as JR Richards and Sons “ushers in a new era in the processing of recyclables” by sending the contents of Orange’s yellow bins directly to Sydney for sorting.
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JR Richards and Sons associate director Robert Marlow said a permanent staff member had been kept on to perform alternate duties, while the other three employees were given redundancies.
However, he said three new full-time staff “with different skillsets” had been employed in Orange.
Mr Marlow said the changes were necessary because, as of Monday, all recycling collected from residents’ yellow bins would be transported and processed in the Visy Recycling plant at Smithfield.
Mr Marlow said the Ophir Road sorting plant was about 10-years old and outdated.
“Consideration was given to replacing this with a similar facility using the newer technologies now available, but the transportation option was a more economical solution,” he said.
Mr Marlow said this meant no waste would go into regional landfills.
“This follows in the footsteps of other NetWaste centres such as Dubbo and Narromine, which also transfer their collected recyclables to the same facility,” he said.
The existing site is being redeveloped for use as the transfer station for the recycling.
“The collection vehicles will still all unload there and the recyclables will be reloaded into the bigger vehicle for transport to Smithfield,” Mr Marlow said.
He said shipments from Orange would occur twice every weekday, with about 9000 tonnes per year, including unsorted material, being carted from Bathurst, Blayney, Cabonne, Forbes and Parkes Councils.
“There will be very little variance in truck movements than in the past where the recycling was still transferred to Sydney, but as sorted product,” he said.
tracey.prisk@fairfaxmedia.com.au
