Representatives from Wanaka's new recycling collection contractor Smart Environmental were in town this week hoping to make peace with the organisation it undercut by 50% in a tendering process.
Smart Environmental chief operating officer Mark Lawson, of Auckland, said yesterday's meeting with Wanaka Wastebusters staff was courteous, professional and constructive but the parties had agreed to keep it confidential.
"It was good. We have got the dialogue open between us at this time," Mr Lawson said yesterday.
Just over two weeks ago, many residents were up in arms as news broke that Wastebusters had lost its cornerstone recycling contract to the Auckland-based business and was contemplating making up to nine redundancies.
Smart's tender was $301,400, which the Queenstown Lakes District Council said in October would save ratepayers $3.9 million over nine years. Smart begins its collections next March.
The public demanded to know, among other things, how Smart could justify the environmental costs and effects of trucking material to Queenstown and how it could add value to the community.
In an interview with the Otago Daily Times on Tuesday, company director Grahame Christian acknowledged the two organisations operated under different models and he understood why Wastebusters staff might be a "bit edgy".
Wastebusters was a charitable society with a nonprofit motive and used a mostly non-automated processing system, while Smart Environmental was a nationwide, commercial business with a focus on developing technology and could offer economies of scale.
However, the two could still work together and Smart Environmental wanted to get involved in the Wanaka community, Mr Christian said.
"We see a real need for the groups to work together. It doesn't have to be on our terms. It can be on mutual terms," Mr Christian said.
Genuine work opportunities were being offered, he said. One extra staff member would be taken on at the company's Queenstown site in the meantime, and another two or three Wanaka-based jobs might become available.
