Bristol city council has begun procuring a seven-year waste and recycling collection contract in a bid to achieve the twin aim of increasing its household recycling rate to 50% and furthering waste reduction in the region.
We need to move to a 50% recycling rate which we aim to achieve as quickly as we can and also continue waste reduction
Cllr Gary Hopkins, Bristol city council
The seven-year contract, which was advertised last week (July 12) in the Official Journal of the European Union, covers a range of waste and recycling services, as well as street cleansing, and includes an option to be extended for a further seven years.
It is set to be worth at least £80 million but, according to the notice advertising the contract, this could rise to £238 million if the whole 14 year option is taken up.
The local authority told letsrecycle.com there had already been “high, high” interest in the contract since it was first advertised. The council's existing collection contract is with SITA UK, whose deal with the council expires in November 2011.
Speaking about the aims of the procurement, councillor Gary Hopkins, executive member for strategic transport, waste and targeted improvement, said: “We need to move to a 50% recycling rate which we aim to achieve as quickly as we can and also continue waste reduction. So these are the two most important factors in terms of getting a new contractor to takeover our system.”
Among the main provisions outlined by the council in the contract notice are collections of residual household waste, dry recyclables, green waste and garden waste, as well as bulky household waste and bring bank recyclables.
The contractor will also be required to take full responsibility for recyclables reprocessing and the recycling and/or re-use of street cleansing waste and bulky household wastes.
Furthermore, the notice also highlights a preference for the successful contractor to work with the city to extend the kerbside collection of waste plastics and also provide bin weighing technologies.
Aims
However, Defra announced yesterday (July 19) that it would no longer be considering Bristol's proposal for a pilot scheme, which would have involved it rewarding residents financially based on the levels of waste reduction achieved at the kerbside (see letsrecycle.com story).
The city council had submitted an application for funding support in March 2010, with the intention of rolling-out a six-month trial of the service to 2,362 households (see letsrecycle.com story).
Speaking to letsrecycle.com in the wake of Defra's announcement, councillor Hopkins said that the council would still look to develop a waste reduction initiative in the city using the chipped bins and was “disappointed but not surprised” that the government had blocked its application.
He said: “It would have been good to run the pilot scheme first but we are asking the bidders who want to run out service to service come up with positive ideas of how we can do it.”
Plastics
With regards to plastics, SITA launched an 18-month trial for mixed plastic collections in Bristol in April 2010, covering 17,500 – around 10% – of households in the city. The remainder of the city is currently served by 50 bring bank sites for plastic material across the local authority area (see letsrecycle.com story).
Cllr Hopkins said: “We have known for some while that doorstep plastic would be very welcome but the cost of it would have been very difficult. The current contractor has had to bring in one of their specialist wagons to demonstrate collections, and that will run up until the new contract comes in.”
The deadline for bidders to submit tenders or requests to participate is August 16 2010, with the city council's timetable planning to submit detailed solutions by 13 September 2010.
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