Under the three-year deal, which also includes the option for a two-year extension, family-run Griffiths will receive and recycle waste wood collected from the council’s HWRCs at Llansamlet, Clyne, Garngoch, Penlan and Tir John.
The £1.4 million figure is the estimated value of the contract over its full period of five years.
Commencing in January 2016, the deal will see waste wood shredded at the company’s materials recycling facility (MRF) at its Bryntywod headquarters in Llangyfelach, Swansea, before being used in animal bedding, among other end-uses.
Swansea currently collects around 4,700 tonnes of waste wood per year and had specifically sought a contractor which would recycle or re-use the material, rather than incinerate it or send it for biomass energy generation.
Reycling targets
It is hoped that this will enable the authority to maximise its re-use and recycling with a view to helping Swansea meet the Welsh Government’s statutory recycling target of 58% by 2016 and 70% by 2025. Swansea’s recycling rate sat around the 59% mark at the end of 2014.
“It’s important that we have these contracts in place so we can continue to maximise our wood recycling as part of our overall waste management service. We look forward to working with the company in the future.”
Christ Howell, head of waste
Swansea city and county council
According to the council “only one economic provider was able to provide a local waste transfer station with a cost effective solution with documentary evidence to prove that all processes offered to the authority can be considered as reuse or recycling and are consistent with Waste Data Flow and Welsh Government definitions”.
The contract award notice explains that all other operators that expressed an interest in the deal were invited to Swansea’s HWRCs “and upon inspection of the material were only able to offer a biomass/incineration solution which fails to meet the relevant ‘End of Waste Criteria’ and could not offer a solution that can be claimed by the authority as recycled/reused”.
Christ Howell, head of waste at Swansea city and county council, said: “It’s important that we have these contracts in place so we can continue to maximise our wood recycling as part of our overall waste management service. We look forward to working with the company in the future.”
Success
The award follows Griffiths’ successful tender in October 2014 for a three-year contract, with a one-year optional extension, to process “thousands of tonnes” of waste wood from Pembrokeshire county council’s HWRCs, which is also processed at the firm’s Swansea MRF.
Meanwhile, it was reported in April that Swansea’s decision to limit the number of black waste bags available to householders had resulted in a 25% fall in the amount of residual waste collected every fortnight over the preceding 12 months (see letsrecycle.com story).
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