The tender uses a portion of the funding received through Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging (pEPR) by its six constituent boroughs.
WLWA is made up of Brent, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Ealing and Richmond which are understood to have collectively received approximately £27 million in funding.
Alistair Green, Head of Municipal Waste Development at the WLWA, said: “The Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging has created a unique opportunity to Local Authority’s and Disposal Authority’s to invest in waste collection systems and infrastructure.
“In addition, it provides an opportunity for Local Authority’s to interact and engage with packaging producers to promote the collection of more recycling and share information on how to design packaging to be more likely to be captured for recycling.
“It is also an opportunity for new solutions or technologies to be explored and trialled with the potential to be adopted for wide-scale adoption. This is what the Communal Recycling Innovation Challenge is aiming to achieve.”
The tender is open to projects which provide innovative solutions to aid in waste segregation, collection or improve communications and behaviour change.
It is open to organisations including:
- Waste and recycling companies
- Technology and AI providers
- Behavioural science and communications specialists
- Housing and property technology providers
- Universities and research organisations
- Start-ups, SMEs and social enterprises
Expressions of interest are due on 22 September 2026 and the shortlist will be released on 20 October 2026.
The contract is estimated at one year and is expected to run from 21 December 2026 to 20 December 2027.
It is open to solutions that can help deliver one or more of the following outcomes:
- Increase recycling capture from communal properties
- Increase food waste participation
- Reduce contamination of recycling
- Improve resident engagement and behaviour change
- Generate better operational insight through data and technology
- Deliver scalable, cost-effective solutions that could be replicated across London and beyond.
Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging funding
Local authorities received their first pEPR payments in November 2025.
The funding is recouped from producers based on the volume of packaging they place on the market.
The first year of pEPR raised a total of £1.1 billion which was distributed to local authorities across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Scheme administrator PackUK has confirmed that £1.558 billion is expected to be recovered from producers in the second year of the scheme.
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