Cheshire West and Chester council has insisted that the long-term financial performance of its waste and recycling collection contract with May Gurney remains strong, as it completed the roll-out of its new kerbside sort service this week.
On Tuesday (October 9), May Gurney issued a trading update saying it was addressing issues with two of its long-term kerbside sort deals. This is understood to include its deal in Cheshire West and Chester (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting on this, the councils executive member for community and environment, Councillor Lynn Riley, said: Despite recent media speculation, the long term financial performance of Cheshire West and Chesters core contract with May Gurney remains strong.
The new contract will provide savings of over 50m over the 14-year life of the contract – almost double the target set by members at the beginning of the procurement process and May Gurney, working in partnership with the council, remain committed to this goal.
Nigel Dyer, regional director, May Gurney added: As a company May Gurney are fully committed to delivering the best possible service to the boroughs residents, a commitment that can be underlined by the significant investment of over 15 million we have already made on vehicles, plant and containers.
Recycle First
Under its contract with the council, May Gurney has beenrolling outa new Recycle First kerbside sort service to residents since June 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Recycle First service, which includes new weekly food waste collections, has now been rolled out across the borough. Residents in Chester became the last to benefit from the new service on Monday (October 8).
Teams have been working throughout the last five months to make the changes required to residents collection containers. This has been supported by a major customer awareness programme.
The new service has expanded the materials that residents can recycle to include:
- Packaging and paper: household metal packaging, cartons, mixed glass (bottles and jars), household plastic packaging, cardboard, mixed paper;
- Electrical waste: batteries, small electrical appliances, mobile phones, printer cartridges;
- Other waste: food waste, garden waste, cooking oil, mixed textiles and clothes, spectacles.
Many households also saw collection day changes as part of May Gurneys strategy to streamline the service.
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The council said that new service is now ready to deliver improvements to its recycling and landfill figures. Prior to its introduction, the councils recycling rate was 49%. The new collection service is expected to raise this to at least 63% once operating at full capacity.
Since the first phase of the councils new Recycle First service began in early June, the council said that an astonishing 70% of all household waste collected has been sent for recycling.
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