Community Waste signs £150m MK MRF deal

The deal, which was signed yesterday (Dec 1), will see Community Waste continue to accept waste collected by the council’s collection firm Serco for recycling at a 100,000 tonne-a-year capacity materials recycling facility at Old Wolverton in north Milton Keynes.

Community Waste has been operating the facility, which is owned by the council, since August 2004 and had been heavily touted to retain the contract before it was officially confirmed in August 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).

Speaking to letsrecycle.com yesterday, Philip Serfaty, director of Community Waste, revealed that the company had been given permission to increase the amount of material it processes at the facility to 150,000 tonnes-a-year and would be working to develop the facility to increase its processing capacity.

He said the company was planning to look at introducing new sorting technologies at the site to enable faster sorting and allow more types of materials to be processed.

Mike Galloway, cabinet member for the environment at Milton Keynes council said: “We chose Community Waste as part of a competitive process. Our priority is creating a good service for our residents that would be easy to use and can deliver and economic service and deal with recyclables.”

He added that the council would be introducing collections for new materials such as mixed plastics once the MRF has been redeveloped.

Commitment

Milton Keynes council tied in the contract signing celebrations with the news that it had signed up to WRAPs’ Waste Collection Commitment. The Commitment was launched by the Local Government Association and WRAP in September this year (see letsrecycle.com story) and aims to help local authorities improve residents’ satisfaction with how their rubbish and recycling is collected and ultimately boost recycling rates.

In a statement, the council said: “The decision to join the scheme has come from a desire to show residents how effective and efficient their service is, and to highlight the working relationships that we have with our contractors.

“It will also show that there are the necessary processes in place to ensure that the service is delivered correctly and that when problems occur, they can be rectified quickly and have a positive outcome,” it added.