The council anticipates that the deal, which covers around 260,000 tonnes of material, will run for 10 years from April 2024.
According to the tender document, it may be necessary for the council to award more than one contract to one or more organisations to meet its waste disposal and treatment requirement.
Hertfordshire has a range of disposal contracts currently in place, which, if one-year extensions are activated, will run until the end of March 2024.
Material is sent to a combination of regional energy from waste (EfW) plants and landfill sites.
A spokesperson for Hertfordshire told letsrecycle.com: “Current arrangements run until the end of March 2023 or March 2024 if extended.
“The county council is seeking non-landfill solutions for the new contracts to support its ambitions of zero waste to landfill by 2030.”
Residual waste
Hertfordshire has a long and chequered history in its attempts to dispose of its residual waste.
Waste management company Veolia previously held a £1 billion contract with the council for the design, construction, financing, and operation of an EfW plant at New Barnfield, Hatfield, then for a facility at Rye House, Hoddesdon.
Following two planning applications, two public inquiries and two refusals from the Secretary of State, the contract was terminated in August 2019 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Hertfordshire’s existing residual waste contracts with FCC Recycling UK, London Energy Ltd, Veolia, and Viridor were put in place following a procurement process in 2018 (see letsrecycle.com story).
These ‘bridging’ contracts were designed to allow a transition to the point where the Rye House EfW plant became operational or to provide arrangements until an alternative solution could be developed.
Hertfordshire
Representing an estimated population of nearly 1.2 million, Hertfordshire county council had a household waste recycling rate of 52.4% in the 2020/21 financial year.
According to the council, there was around 509,000 tonnes of local authority collected waste in Hertfordshire 2019/20.
Of this, around 237,000 tonnes was material from Hertfordshire’s household waste recycling centres, ‘black bag’ kerbside residual waste, street cleansing material, bulky waste, and litter requiring treatment or disposal under the council’s residual waste contracts.
However, the council says the global Covid-19 pandemic saw increased volumes of waste.
During the first quarter of 2021/22, residual waste volumes in Hertfordshire were 8.6% higher than in the first quarter of 2019/20, and the council says that as yet there are no signs of volumes returning to pre-pandemic levels.
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