Belfast begins tender process for 5-year kerbside contract

The contract covers a “kerbside box” collection from 50,000 households in an area of 'relatively high density housing' and the council has included the option to extend the contract's term for periods of two years.

Companies interested in the work had to register with the city council this week and the council now plans to request six firms to submit more detailed tenders.

Jim Shields, waste control manager for Belfast, said it could be April or March, 2004 before the six are selected. “In the next week or two we will carry out the evaluation of applications then we have to report to the committee and go to a full council meeting,” he said.

Objectives

Belfast's current recycling rate is 5% and the most ambitious objective for the kerbside box service is to recover 25% of household waste by 2005. Other objectives include a low contamination level in the collected materials and publicity campaigns to raise awareness and achieve a high participation rate in the scheme.

Although the collection is in addition to services laid out in the Eastern Region Waste Management Group's arc21 Waste Plan, Belfast city council hopes the collection will help it meet the Plan's primary targets. Adopted by 11 Northern Irish councils in 2001 including Belfast, the Waste Plan has set targets of 25% of household waste recovered by 2005 and 40% by 2010, with at least 25% from recycling or composting.

This is the second time Belfast city council has run a tendering process for a kerbside recycling collection after its first attempt failed to find a bidder to fulfil the requirements.

“We had tendered this previously but did not select a contractor. This time we wanted a negotiated procedure,” explained Mr Shields. “In the last process, we were not happy with their ability to perform so we wanted to try and do it differently.”

Community

Although it has not been confirmed, one organisation that is thought to have applied to tender for the contract is local community recycler Bryson House Recycling working with ECT Recycling.

Bryson House Recycling already operates kerbside collection to 28,000 households in six Northern Irish local authorities including 5,500 homes in Belfast in a pilot scheme for the city council.

Eric Randall, recycling development manager for Bryson House Recycling, said of the pilot's progress so far: “In inner city Belfast I guess the school report would say &#39c;ould do better'. It's pretty typical kind of response from a low income area.”