The contract extension worth £21.6 million per annum includes household and commercial recycling and refuse collections as well as a string of other services such as street cleansing. The value was agreed based on the predicted costs for 2023/24.
Veolia and Haringey’s contract was first signed in 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story) and due to expire in April 2025.
In a meeting last year when the council confirmed it would seek to extend the contract, Haringey outlined that after the two-year extension, it will again consider insourcing the service. This was “seriously considered” for April 2025, but deemed too soon.
The council outlined that it hopes the extension will give it the time to further review this.
Haringey also discussed the possible option of extending the contract for a further seven years but said at this stage, it felt it was unable to make a decision as the “review of the delivery options is still in development”.
Recycling rate
As part of its current contract, Veolia has a service performance indicator target for increasing the council’s household recycling rate, which has decreased from 37.3% in 2014/15 to 27.4% in 2022/23. The council put this down to a change in residents habits due to the pandemic and the cost of living crisis.
The council also noted that the education and outreach service had been cut from the contract, which made it difficult to help with educating residents on how to recycle.
Veolia outlined that it will “continue to strive towards an improved recycling rate” in partnership with the council, including rolling out “new initiatives”.
This will include a dedicated collection service for small electricals that will help prevent the growing number of fires in vehicles and at facilities caused by these items, Veolia said.
Partnership
Pascal Hauret, municipal managing director at Veolia said: “We’re delighted to be continuing our long partnership with Haringey Council. The next few years will see us strive for higher recycling rates and the conservation of resources, in line with our purpose of ecological transformation.
“We’re particularly proud of all the social value initiatives the partnership has fostered and look forward to increasing this added value to the communities we serve together.”
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