Charnwood borough council has today (April 15) awarded waste management firm Viridor a contract to sort and market 16,000 tonnes-a-year of mixed dry recyclables.
Under the deal, the waste management firm will transfer material collected at the kerbside in the Leicestershire local authority area to its Crayford materials recycling facility (MRF) in Kent, which is one of the largest MRFs in operation in Europe.
The contract is set to run for five years and eight months with an option to be extended by a further seven years.
Charnwoods contract with Viridor is intended to complement its 7 million kerbside collection contract with services firm Serco, which saw the local authority switch to commingled collections in April 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).
As part of the new contract Charnwood will tweak its kerbside collection service as residents will move from plastic sacks and a box to a single bin where householders can put all of their recyclable materials.
Recovering glass, mixed plastics, cartons, aluminium and steel cans, mixed paper and cardboard, the new contract is intended to help the council deliver a more convenient and cost-effective service to residents.
June Barlow, Viridors tender manager, said: Charnwood has already a very good recycling record and the new contract with us will build on that by providing them with a good quality and cost-effective service.
Through our Crayford facility Viridor recovers nearly half a million tonnes of valuable resources which can then be sent to manufacturers to produce new products and packaging, helping the UK become more resource efficient.
Neil Greenhalgh, head of environmental services at Charnwood, added: We know that residents across the borough are keen recyclers and we are always looking for additional opportunities to make recycling easier while delivering good value for money.
The new contract and the changes to collections will help us do just that. We are very pleased to appoint Viridor to help further boost our recycling performance.”
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