The Northern Irish council triggered a £1.4 million one year extension, meaning the contract will now expire on 30 April 2023.
It explained that “this was to enable its resources to be diverted to procuring and managing urgent requirements to deal with the pandemic consequences”.
The local authority added that the move would help “relieve pressure on the supply chain while short-staffed” and to enable it to deliver waste collection services.
The move would also “allow funding bodies to decide on relevant applications in the context of changing financial environment due to the pandemic”.
The council added that it intended to procure a replacement contract as soon as possible following the resolution of the pandemic impact.
Contract
Bryson has been providing collection and recycling services to the councils 140,000 residents since 2011.
The extension of the contract will see the overall value rise by £1.4 million to £14.1 million, tender documents show.
Waste arisings
Across the UK, some councils have had to modify contracts during the pandemic to deal with changing waste composition or increased arisings.
For example, Glasgow had to spend an extra £4.2 million in April as more residents looked to use bulky waste during the pandemic (see letsrecycle.com story).
The Northern Irish council actually saw a 7.5% decrease in household waste arisings in 2021. This was said to be “likely due to the impact of the pandemic and restricting access to recycling centres to borough residents only”.
However, supply chain issues has meant the council have thought it better to renew the contract, and begin tendering next year.
The total household waste arisings for 2021 were 78,090 tonnes, with a recycling rate of 56.9% was recycled, a decrease of 0.4% from the previous year.
However, there was an increase of 2.1% in the tonnage of waste sent to landfill, attributed to the result of more people working from home and lack of recycling markets for waste items such as mattresses and carpets, the council said.
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