Verdant has won a £50 million contract to provide an integrated waste management service for South Oxfordshire district council and its neighbour, Vale of White Horse district council.

Verdant's new collection services will be introduced to South Oxfordshire in June 2009 and to Vale of White Horse in October 2010

The award, which is the Sevenoaks-based firm's first joint-council deal, will see it take over waste and recycling collections for South Oxfordshire from current contractor Grundon in June 2009.

And, it will replace Vale of White Horse's current service provider Veolia in October 2010.

By awarding the contract to Verdant, the councils say they will make joint cost savings of up to £500,000, as well as delivering increased recycling credits of almost £200,000.

Councillor Jenny Hannaby, executive member for waste at Vale of White Horse, said: "This truly is a waste revolution. We all have a responsibility to reduce the amount of waste we produce and this new contract will make it so much easier for people to do their bit.

"Our residents have already helped us achieve record recycling rates and this will help them go even further. Verdant will be using up-to-date technology to support their collections and this should lead to a much better service for residents. I only wish we could get started in the Vale straight away. In the meantime we will continue working with our current contractors who offer an excellent service," she added.

As part of the new contract - which also covers street cleansing services in both areas - Verdant will introduce alternate weekly collections, including commingled collections of paper, cardboard, metal, mixed plastics and glass which will use new 240 litre wheeled bins.

Until now, South Oxfordshire residents had not been able to recycle glass at the kerbside, while Vale of White Horse residents had only been able to include plastic bottles and not mixed plastics in their kerbside collection boxes.

The service will also include weekly collections of food waste, using a 25 litre kitchen caddy, and the continuation of the fortnightly subscription-only green waste collections service, which Verdant has been responsible for in South Oxfordshire since 2006.

As a result, Verdant has revealed plans to source and deliver nearly 200,000 wheeled bins and the same number of kitchen caddies across the two council areas.

Describing himself as "delighted" with the company's success in winning the contract, Verdant managing director Roger Edwards said: "We had faith in our proposals because we've got excellent operational experience in driving change that cuts waste going to landfill.

"Both councils have ambitious recycling targets and everyone at Verdant promises their utmost effort in helping them to meet and beat those targets," he added.

South Oxfordshire achieved a 38.8% recycling and composting rate in 2007/08 and is aiming to reach a 53% goal by 2015/16, while Vale of White Horse reached a 32.7% rate in 2007/08 and is hoping to achieve a 50% target by the same point.

Verdant plans to minimise the carbon footprint of its collections by using the same vehicles to collect both food waste and other materials, while bins will be micro-chipped to monitor rounds for customer service purposes.

And, a new fleet of both large (between 26 and 32 tonnes) and smaller (between 3.5 and 15 tonnes) collection vehicles will be introduced.