Autoclave loss sets back Tower Hamlets waste plans

It has emerged that the loss of the outlet for as much as 160,000 tonnes of the London borough's household waste a year was a key factor in the council deciding, at a Cabinet meeting last month, to award shortened contracts for its recycling services.

Tower Hamlets had planned to award six year contracts for services including; the collection of recyclables, the sorting of recyclables, the collection and processing of food waste and the introduction of communal facilities in place of doorstep collections for high-rise properties.

However, the decision was made to award only two-year contracts, and the documents from the meeting state that: “The change in duration of the initial term is to facilitate the continuance of recycling services while the Council develops a new Waste Management Strategy that will set out the long term solutions for waste and recycling collections, composting and waste treatment and disposal services.”

And, the document directly refers to the “loss of the autoclave plant” as the reason for a new waste strategy needing to be drawn up.

As a result, the council awarded current contract holder Viridor a two year contract for sorting the council's commingled recycling collections, a process that takes place at its Crayford materials recycling facility in South-East London, with a price set at £17 per tonne of recyclables sorted.

At the same time Veolia has had its two-year contract for recycling collections renewed, with the added responsibilities of converting high rise collections to the use of communal facilities, and introducing the council's first ever food waste collection. Its contract is valued at £2,737,543, plus a gate fee of £59 per tonne.

Cleanaway

Tower Hamlets had previously planned to send up to 160,000 tonnes a year of its household waste to the autoclave facility that Cleanaway had received planning permission to build in 2006 (see letsrecycle.com story), as it attempted to improve on what is, according to figures for 2006-07, the worst recycling and composting rate in England.

Following its purchase of Cleanaway in September 2006, Veolia had reiterated its commitment to building the plant (see letsrecycle.com story), but with plans for the facility now abandoned, Tower Hamlets says it has an “urgent” need to develop a new Waste Management Strategy.

“Work on the new strategy has commenced and is likely to take six months to conclude,” the council's report said.

“The treatment and disposal options being evaluated through the strategy development process have the potential to require some re-shaping of collection services in medium term,” it added.

Concern

The procurement process for the collection services was also affected by bidders' concern that they would face fines for failing to collect sufficient tonnages, under a Default and Abatement mechanism.

As a result, the notes for the Cabinet meeting reveal that no initial six-year tenders satisfied the council's cost and guaranteed minimum tonnage requirements.

It explains that: “All bidders view that as there are a number of aspects associated with resident participation in recycling services that are outside of the control of the contract, a Default and Abatement mechanism linked to the contractor of sole bearer of this risk is unpalatable to bidders and their cautious approach to guaranteed tonnages is a director reflection of the level of perceived risk.

“This view appears to have resulted in either modest recycling targets, or excessive prices, as bidders have sought to mitigate financial risk,” it adds.

Participation

Tower Hamlets poor recycling and composting rates have traditionally resulted from a low level of participation caused by a number of factors, not least of which are the large number of high-rise properties in the borough and communication barriers due to its multi-ethnic population and a high number of migrant workers.

Caution over the feasibility of reaching recycling targets in Tower Hamlets is further illustrated by the document indicating that while Veolia is “happy to work to higher tonnage targets than originally submitted, they are not prepared to accept financial defaults against these higher targets, until the conversion from door to door collections to communal facilities has been completed, when it will be possible to establish a realistic baseline against which performance can be measured”.

Earlier this year, Tower Hamlets indicated that it would be looking to join other London boroughs Harrow and Barnet by introducing compulsory recycling later this year (see letsrecycle.com story).