Cornwall to adopt uniform collection system

After being granted unitary status in April 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story) – giving it responsibility for waste collection as well as disposal – the local authority has launched a consultation on how collection services can be harmonised and improved.

At present, different collection systems are operated in the former Cornwall districts of Carradon, Carrick, Kerrier, North Cornwall, Penwith, Restormel. For instance, Restormel is the only council to provide a weekly dry recycling collection and two of the districts provide residents with plastic bags rather than bins or boxes to put out their recyclables.

The majority of homes receive weekly collections of residual waste combined with alternate weekly collections of dried recyclables and garden waste. No food waste collections are in place.

To make the service more equitable and to increase recycling rates, the council now expects to advertise a contract to cover the whole county at the end of January 2011.

Cllr Julian German, council cabinet member for waste management, explained that four of the six waste collection contracts currently in place in Cornwall would be coming to an end in April 2012, making this the ideal starting point for any new contract.

He explained that the other two contracts, in Carrick and Restormal in central Cornwall, were due to finish in 2015 and 2016 and that this would be taken into consideration when putting any new arrangement in place.

He said: “This is a hugely important issue that affects everyone in Cornwall. We have crucial decisions to make in relation to these collections and we want to make sure that we have as much information from the public as possible before making those decisions.”

Dave Owens, head of waste management at the council, added: “We want to hear from people about what sort of service they want to see in place. We produce over 285,000 tonnes of waste every year in Cornwall, and at the moment we are only recycling 37% so we need to improve on this.
“This may involve changes in the range of materials we collect to improve performance and this could, for example, include separate weekly food collections.”

Bids

The council is hoping to attract bids both from the in-house teams which operate in some Cornwall districts and also from the private sector. The service currently costs £16.5 million a year to operate adn it is hoped that, by letting one contract, some efficiency savings will be made.

Cllr German said: “We hope we can drive down costs through a good competitive process.”

The consultation will run until December 31. Paper copies can be collected from One Stop Shops and libraries throughout Cornwall.