The contract covers the collection of refuse and co-mingled paper, plastics and glass recyclables from 85,000 households and 3,700 commercial premises as well as street cleaning for the London borough.
The council is inviting expressions of interest from companies before March 5, 2003 and will then ask up to five firms to submit more detailed tenders for the contract, which is due to start on April 1, 2005.
”Our collections are geared towards collecting co-mingled recyclables“
– Peter Ramage, Kensington and Chelsea
Part of the Western Riverside Disposal Authority with Hammersmith and Fulham, Lambeth and Wandsworth boroughs, Kensington and Chelsea is the only borough in the partnership which does not use an orange sack kerbside collection system.
And Peter Ramage, head of waste management for the borough council, told letsrecycle.com that Kensington and Chelsea has no plans to introduce orange sacks with the new contract. Instead, the council will continue to provide blue wheeled bins that can be shared between households and tags to attach to normal carrier bags so collection crews can identify them for recycling.
“We have been quite clear that we would want to maintain our twice weekly kerbside recycling collection of co-mingled materials,” he said.
One of the main difficulties the council faces with the orange sack scheme is that around 87% of Kensington and Chelsea's residents live in flats, making it difficult to deliver the sacks to residents.
Awareness
But, Emma Lewis of the partnership's waste awareness campaign Rethink Rubbish Western Riverside said that Kensington and Chelsea is considering introducing the orange sack scheme in the future.
She said: “Kensington and Chelsea are looking into using the orange sack scheme. From a Rethink Rubbish perspective we have been looking to try and homogenise the collection systems in Western Riverside to simplify the awareness campaign messages.”
“When their circumstances change, we hope they will join the orange sack scheme,” Ms Lewis added.
Despite the differences in collection methods, Mr Ramage said Kensington and Chelsea's co-mingled collections still fit in with Western Riverside's waste disposal contract with Cory Environmental. He said: “As part of the Western Riverside Partnership we are very much party to building of a state-of-the-art MRF at Smugglers' Way so our collections are geared towards collecting co-mingled recyclables.”
Targets
The new contract is likely to be an “extraordinary challenge” for the new service provider, Mr Ramage said.
The London borough's recycling rate for 2002-03 was 7.5% but Mr Ramage said due to work carried out with current contractor SITA UK in the past few months, the 2003-04 rate should be around 14.5% – still short of the statutory target of 22%.
“We must aspire ever onwards and upwards,” he said, “We have a 33% target for 2005-06 which is an extraordinary challenge for an area like ours.”
To increase recycling rates, the Kensington and Chelsea is considering several new options for the contract including the provision of more bring sites and performance-related pay incentives for collection crews, Mr Ramage explained. The support of five recycling wardens to continue the borough's door-to-door awareness campaign and default penalties may also part of the contract.
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