Under the 10-year deal, which is expected to be finalised by the end of November 2010, French-owned Veolia ES will be responsible for running waste and recycling collections, street cleansing services and recyclables processing on behalf of Dover district council and Shepway district council from January 2011.
And, from 2013, it is also set to provide recyclables processing for Thanet district council and Canterbury city council.
The contract has been procured by the East Kent Joint Waste Partnership, which also includes Kent county council. As the waste disposal authority for all four collection authorities, the county council is expecting to save £2.9 million a year in waste disposal costs under the contract.
And, the districts have said they expect their average recycling rate to increase significantly, with Dover alone saying it believes it will save £200,000 and increase its recycling rate by between 10% and 15% in the next 12 months.
Alternate
Under the contract, which was put out for tender last year (see letsrecycle.com story), Dover and Shepway councils are set to move from weekly to alternate weekly collections of residual waste, using wheeled bins, and recycling at the kerbside.
Both will use a twin-stream approach to recycling, with paper and card collected in a box and all other recyclables – glass, mixed plastics, food and drink cans and Tetrapaks – collected commingled in a new wheeled bin.
“It is inevitable that in the current economic climate more authorities will consider joint working arrangements”
For Dover, this will represent a change from the system used by the council’s current contractor SITA UK, which involves glass, plastic bottles and cans being collected in a box and paper and card being collected in a bag.
And, in Shepway, the council will move from its current source-separated recycling collections, which are run by Veolia – a move which Roger Walton, who is in charge of waste management for both districts, said would deliver the council just under £700,000 in savings.
Both councils will also benefit from the introduction of weekly food waste collections, while, under the deal, dry recyclables will be sent to Veolia’s materials recycling facility at Rainham in Kent.
Mr Walton, who is director of property, leisure and waste management at Dover and head of environmental services at Shepway, stressed that Kent was funding all the costs of the containers needed for the new service.
As a result, he told letsrecycle.com: “The districts are in no worse financial position and Kent county council’s disposal costs go down.”
Kent county council sends its residual waste to be turned into energy at Waste Recycling Group’s Allington energy-from-waste incinerator in Kent – an arrangement that is set to continue once the new contract begins.
Costs
The Veolia contract was hailed by Dover district council’s cabinet member for environment, waste and planning, councillor Nicholas Kenton, who said: “This important partnership means we can keep our costs as low as possible, while helping us all to work together to recycle more and protect the environment for the future.”
It was also welcomed by Kent county council’s cabinet member for environment, highways and waste, Nick Chard, who said: “This is a clear demonstration of how councils can work together to reduce costs for the benefit of their residents.”
Meanwhile, the wider significance of the contract was highlighted by Jean-Dominique Mallet, chief executive of Veolia ES in the UK.
He said: “It is inevitable that in the current economic climate more authorities will consider joint working arrangements and through this contract we will demonstrate we have the resources and capabilities to deliver value for money and improved services by combining innovation and economies of scale.”
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