The Waste Partnership consists of Hertfordshire county council and 10 other local authorities in the area and the contract with Shropshire-based Newport Paper means that eventually up to 50,000 tonnes per annum of recovered paper products from the Waste Partnership will be exported to newsprint giant Stora Enso in Belgium. Stora Ensa has its own partnership with Newport Paper in the UK.
The signing of the contract comes in a competitive landscape for used newspapers – in 2009 domestic mill demand for the material will rise due to the opening of a 400,000 tonnes per annum newsprint mill in King's Lynn by German firm Palm Paper. The price paid by Newport Paper for the material has not been disclosed but is thought to be more than £100 a tonne, considerably above current market rates. However, the contract arrangements are likely to have been agreed before the recent slump in market prices and Stora Enso may well have expected that prices could rise in 2009 when the Palm mill comes on stream and starts looking for supplies.
Acceptable
Councillor Derrick Ashley from the Hertfordshire Waste Partnership said: “Through the Hertfordshire Waste Partnership, authorities are working hard to deliver the objectives of our Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy in the most environmentally acceptable and cost effective way.”
“Newport Paper really impressed us with their tender and the additional income generated will help to support and develop the waste services we offer,” he added.
Welwyn Hatfield council acted as the lead authority on the deal, which came into effect on December 1, and it is set to cover all source segregated paper from kerbside collections and recycling banks, as well as material collected at the county's 19 household waste and recycling centres.
North Hertfordshire and Broxbourne councils have already begun supplying material, with other councils due to join in a staggered basis. Once the material has been collected it will be sent to Stora Enso's Langerbrugge mill in Gent, Belgium for reprocessing, as part of an existing contract between the Shropshire firm and the Belgian company.
Economies
Matthew Hoare, managing director of Newport Paper, said: “We're delighted to have won this new contract, especially given its size. I'm sure this type of contract will increase in popularity because of the economies of scale that can be achieved with one supplier being used across a county.”
The Partnership stated that Newport was selected after proving in its tender that it was capable of meeting the financial requirements necessary, especially with regards to providing a market-leading purchase price over the term of the contract.
Currently boasting a combined recycling rate of 38.5%, the Partnership represents Hertfordshire county council, Broxbourne, Dacorum, Hertsmere and Stevenage borough councils, East Herts district council, North Hertfordshire district council, St. Albans city and district council, Stevenage Borough council, Three Rivers district council, Watford council and Welwyn Hatfield council.
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