The 18-month contract, worth over 300,000 excluding the value of recyclables, will strengthen ECT's coverage of the capital, which the company says now extends to one in six Londoners.
The company will take over borough doorstep and bring bank recycling in mid-November. At the moment, glass, paper, cardboard and mixed cans are collected fortnightly from 11,000 homes in Tower Hamlets.
Boost
From the end of January 2003, ECT has pledged to boost recycling in the borough by increasing the number of households with kerbside collections by 55% to all 17,000 low-rise homes in the borough. These make up 18% of total households in the borough – the rest are high-rise and do not have collections.
From January, collections will also be weekly and the range of materials will increase to include aluminium foil, textiles and Yellow Pages.
Revenues
The revenues from sales of recyclables will be split equally after transportation costs between ECT and Tower Hamlets council. Tower Hamlets will also give ECT 50% of the landfill tax element of the recycling credit, which works out at about 6.50 per tonne.
Tower Hamlets' lead member for the environment, Councillor Betheline Chattopadhyay, said: “Recycling is a key priority for Tower Hamlets. Through our partnership with ECT we aim to encourage, enthuse and convince more residents to recycle.”
The borough currently collects 1,000 tonnes a year of mixed recyclables through bring banks and the kerbside scheme. This is expected to increase to 1,500 tonnes a year when the scheme is extended.
ECT works with other London boroughs such as Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Lambeth, Lewisham, Richmond, Waltham Forest and Hounslow, as well as the Vale of White Horse and West Oxfordshire.
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