The contract, published on Monday (3 May), has been valued at £1.2 million a year and will run for an initial three years, with the option to extend for a further two years.
The Kent-based company was first awarded the contract in 2016 for an initial term of three years, which was then extended by a further two years in 2019. The latest contract began in April 2021.
IVC
The contract will see Envar continue to process mixed food and garden waste collected by the Serco from the kerbside every week, before it is processed at Envar’s In-Vessel Composting (IVC) facility in Cambridgeshire.
At the IVC facility, the waste will be transported into a computer-controlled double-ended batch tunnel in-vessel system. Envar will then take the resulting compost to agricultural operations, and transport reject material for disposal.
Envar saw off competition from four other bidders for the contract.
Uncertainty
In a delegated decisions report from October, the council said that the extension of the previous contract was down to “uncertainty” around the Environment Bill, which has been delayed several times.
The report explained: “The uncertainty around the final content of the Environmental Bill and the enacting of the final regulations makes it difficult to make a future proof recommendation for collection of food and garden waste to 2023 and beyond.”
It comes as the council plans a shakeup of its waste collection system, which will see a roll out of four wheeled bins to each home in the district from 2023 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Milton Keynes councils recorded a recycling rate of 56.3% in 2019/20, and serves a population of around 250,000 residents.
Envar has been approached for comment.
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