The announcement to the municipal sector came from Jean-Dominique Mallet, chief executive of Veolia ES, who, at the same time, questioned some local authority consultants who he considers don't give Veolia ES a fair hearing because it is a large French-owned business.
We have made major achievements; we have invested tonnes of money and are second in the country's capacity and first in what we do
Jean-Dominique Mallet, Veolia ES
Speaking exclusively to letsrecycle.com, Mr Mallet mounted a vigorous defence of the company which he said was “very underrated” in terms of its activities – and “this is as much our doing as anyone else's”. And, he called for more attention to be paid to the collection side of waste and recycling rather than concentrating on treatment solutions.
In a wide-ranging discussion, Mr Mallet commented on the French nature of the company, the perception of Veolia, collection and treatment services and materials recycling facilities (MRFs).
“We are undervalued,” said the chief executive, “because people don't understand our range of services. For local authorities we are the only company operating in all sectors of the market, from street services, waste management and recycling through to incineration of hazardous waste and provider of industrial services.”
Mr Mallet said Veolia ES should not be “shy about what we are” and argued that the acquisition of the Cleanaway waste business – which made Veolia ES substantially larger – was a big positive.
Perception
Some of the strongest words used by Mr Mallet came when he talked about the perception of Veolia ES in the UK. He expressed concerns about the views of some critics because they were advising against Veolia simply for being a “large French company seeking to make a profit”.
On the “being French” factor, he said: “Yes, we are French-owned, but in this company there are only a small number of French guys out of 12,000. Ninety-nine per cent of people are from the UK and people should be proud of it. This is our 20th year in the UK and we have suffered because of this view.”
Mr Mallet was perplexed by the perception of the company among some councils. “On the local authority side we are not known as we should be,” he said. “There must be a reason why for we are successful. We work in Sheffield, Birmingham, Shropshire, Hampshire and elsewhere. We have made major achievements; we have invested tonnes of money and are second in the country's capacity and first in what we do.
“All this criticism about us as a big company is a lie and a joke. Yes, we are going to make money, that is our business. But, people are giving attention to the fact that companies should not be so big. I would say that consultants will move on, whereas we won't. We are not big by coincidence – we have stuck to a business model and leveraged in investment and experience,” he added.
The chief executive was also keen to make the point to local authorities and their advisors that he believed waste companies such as Veolia have the answers as much as consultants do. “We can draw on an array of experiences in this country and internationally – local authorities are faced with the same issues everywhere. We should be able to bring the solution to you. I understand they have consultants but we have the experience as well.”
UK policy
Mr Mallet said the UK had, in recent years, focused successfully on treatment projects but, in contrast, had failed to think through collection systems for recycling and waste materials.
He added: “It is a credit to the UK system that it has promoted new capacity in the UK, through PPP and PFI – I prefer the term PPP. All this promotion and support from the authorities has created a demand so all sorts of offers have come in. Perhaps sometimes there should be some better screening of the offers but yes there should be competition. Don't forget we create competition, through our purchases of equipment and trucks for example. We are a service company and take responsibility for it.”
Collection
The collection side of municipal work is of sharp concern. Mr Mallet said: “The collection side has not been as positive in terms of fiscal investment. In tendering policy for treatment options I can only say I have praise, but everyone has been putting all the pressure on the treatment side.”
We are considering not doing any other kerbside collection contracts, we're looking at near-misses that some of these rounds can involve
Jean-Dominique Mallet, Veolia ES
He warned that Veolia ES might even opt out of bidding for new kerbside collection contracts on health and safety grounds because of the level of seriousness with which the company takes staff and public welfare. And, to a lesser extent, he referred to the issue of investment which cannot always be made on a small short-term contract.
In particular, Mr Mallet cited the number of near-misses that can happen on collection rounds if safety issues are not taken seriously enough in the contract. He explained: “We are considering not doing any other kerbside collection contracts, we're looking at near-misses that some of these rounds can involve.”
Huge efforts have been made by the company, working with the trade unions, to try and protect workers health and safety, especially in avoiding back injuries which he sees as particularly problematic with bag and box collections. He said: “Back injuries don't show on the first page of the newspaper but people can be stuck at home for days. It is a bad consequence for the individual and their families.”
On the subject of collection systems using boxes, the first aspect that he pointed to comes at the householder end. “There is a psychological angle to collection,” he said. “Why are people putting recycling into five bins? Why do they have to think about which bin to use and find the land area for the bins?”
Mr Mallet is also focused on the actual collection work itself and on how rounds operate. A second area of interest, he said, is that one of the criticisms levelled at the company by critics – including the Campaign for Real Recycling – is that kerbside sorting by hand into a vehicle is a safer option than using a refuse collection vehicle with bin lifts to collect commingled material.
The chief executive was adamant that this is not the case, especially when collections are made from just one side of the roads. He said: “The second aspect, in terms of safety, is that kerbside sorting trucks stop longer and very often people go both sides.”
Health and safety has improved by 20% on Veolia ES's vehicles and he said it was “not fair comment to say RCVs are more dangerous. My daily concern is that I want everyone to go home at night safe and in good health.”
The importance of this in terms of workforce was made clear by Mr Mallet who noted that the company has the eighth largest fleet in the UK. “When I see people raising all these bins, I have noticed a lot of back injuries. I see people crossing a street with three plastic bottles in a box so when we have the technologies to avoid this I am a little concerned. It is worth having more dialogue about this method of collection.”
Jean-Dominique Mallet
Appointed as chief executive of Veolia ES in June 2007, Mr Mallet, 56, also has responsibilities as executive vice-president for Northern Europe and Australia. He is also a member of Veolia's Executive Committee and retains responsibility for the technical and greenhouse gas departments of the company.
Mr Mallet joined the Veolia Environnement group in 1990. He is experienced in the waste management sector having moved to the waste management arm of Veolia Environnement in 1994. Prior to his UK appointment he supervised the company's activities in Australia, Africa, Middle East and Southern Europe.
He started his career at Continental Illinois Bank, Chicago, later joining the construction group of Compagnie Générale des Eaux. He holds a Masters in civil engineering from ESTP, a Masters of Economics from La Sorbonne and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame (USA).
Urging local authorities to pay more attention generally to health and safety of collections in their contracts, Mr Mallet said: “On the collection side of things, they should pay more attention to health and safety. In the collection contract the usual tendering issue is price – at the end of the day it is 100% budgetary. People don't give enough attention to the intangibles such as health and safety.”
He suggested that councils should also consider economies of scale for collection contracts if they are thinking about price, as happens with treatment contracts.
Going forward, Mr Mallet said that councils need to talk to contractors and also make decisions for themselves rather than relying too much on “prices being put forward by consultants which can lead to contracts decisions being made which are puzzling. These contracts should be much more sophisticated is terms of trends, logistics, health and safety, RFID tagging and other points.”
MRFs
On materials recycling facilities, he said that claims that MRFs are “dirty MRFs” is unfair: “I am saying the challenge for all of us is to treat the flow of waste and identify the reprocessor.
“There is an issue in the UK, we need to look at what is coming in to the MRF, which is interesting, and what is going out. Our logo is 'turning waste into a resource' and we look at how much waste is turned into a resource, how much diversion there is from landfill and for energy recovery.”
And, he said Veolia is prepared to look ahead and is very aware of the need to develop recycling activities on an environmental basis as well as as a business. He said: “For example, the plastics market today is not economical for recycling but it is important in terms of avoiding harm to the environment.
“Recycling is beneficial in the long term for the environment. But this is complicated for local authorities, they live under budget pressure, so if we can offer a contract over seven years we can price that risk in our offers. The important thing is for the local authorities to understand this.”
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