ECT is the largest community recycling organisation in the UK and is based in Greenford, West London. The Barnet work, which starts on October 1, will see it developing kerbside recycling for all homes in the borough – worth about 1m a year by April 2002. A separate contract, worth about 250,000, is for ECT to run a civic amenity (CA) site which will be turned into a “recycle, reuse and recovery” facility. Both contract values, together totalling 1.25m are estimated net contract
values after the removal of recycling credits rather than a gross figure for the work.
Claire Webb, Barnet’s waste strategy and contracts manager, said she was looking forward to the start of the contracts. “They will help us go a long way to reaching government targets although to meet later targets we will have to tackle green waste at the kerbside as well.”
For ECT
the work is a first in that it has not run a CA site before. Managing director Andy Bond said: “The delivery of kerbside collection from October 1 will be equal to the fastest we have done. And, this is the first time will run a pure civic amenity site although we will be changing this into a recycling site.”
The deal, which will mean that including its other contracts in the capital, ECT will next year be providing kerbside collections to more than one in six London households.
Kerbside cages
The North London borough currently has a bi-weekly paper collection to about 80,000 homes which is carried out by its direct service organisation using the refuse collection vehicle fleet. ECT will use low-cost vehicles with kerbside cages to collect a range of materials including glass bottles, cans, paper, aluminium foil, textiles and shoes. Near entrance container systems will be provided for blocks of flats and mansions.
Commenting on the contract, Andy Bond said that ECT would receive a management fee for “a range of inputs”. The contract is flexible to reflect recycling costs and income as well as changes in disposal costs. “We effectively have a programme of action and research as to the future cost. It is not just a figure per tonne paid to us – that would just encourage waste flows.”
And, he added that ultimately the organisation may receive a bonus for hitting recycling targets.
In-vessel
ECT is also in talks with the borough about developing in-vessel composting facilities at the CA site. Claire Webb said: “We will pilot some in vessel composting with ECT and hope to have Landfill Tax credit support for this.”
Andy Bond said that the in-vessel approach would be more appropriate for Barnet because it is in an urban area and it would also help deal with quantities of food waste. “22% of the average London bin is food waste”.
Barnet currently recycles about 7% and its recycling target for 2003/4 is 18%. Geoff Cooke, Barnet councillor for the environment, said: “We don’t underestimate the size of the task of recycling more than twice the current rate of household waste by 2004, but by introducing a weekly doorstep recycling service we will take a huge step towards achieving this goal.”
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