We are the ‘white knight' of kerbside sort in the industry at the moment. We do sometimes feel that we are a lone voice. But that does not deter us as we believe this is a winning formula
Nicola Peake, May Gurney
Nicola Peake told letsrecycle.com that contracts such as that won by May Gurney in Torbay – incorporating waste and recycling collections alongside the maintenance of highways, parks, the council's fleet, car parks and street and beach cleansing (see letsrecycle.com story) – were expected to become more and more common as budgets were squeezed.
As a result, she claimed that May Gurney – which offers a wide range of services as well as waste management – was well-placed to capitalise on this.
She said: “I think there will be a challenge to local authorities to demonstrate value for money and that they have the most efficient service. We anticipate more of those bundled contracts together and with May Gurney's structure we can respond to that.
“When a contract is bundled together and there is one management structure we can eliminate a lot of overlap and it is easier for clients to have to deal with only one partner.”
Services
May Gurney first entered the environmental services sector in 2007 when it won a contract to manage Norfolk's household waste recycling centres and Mrs Peake said that waste was fast becoming a big part of the business.
In June 2008, the company took over community recycling group ECT Recycling and inherited contracts with the Somerset Waste Partnership and other local authorities (see letsrecycle.com story) alongside a strong ethos in support of sorting recyclables at the kerbside.
Today, the firm provides waste services for 20 local authorities – ranging from waste and recycling collections to managing household waste recycling centres. The household waste recycling centre contracts are another area where Mrs Peake said that she anticipated growth as council budgets were cut.
She said: “We run 67 household waste recycling centres across the UK and we see those becoming more and more important.”
On the issue of kerbside sort, Mrs Peake acknowledged that many of the large waste companies were strongly in favour of collecting material commingled and later sorting it in a materials recycling facility (MRF). This is something which the UK's largest waste management firm, Veolia Environmental Services, strongly advocated a manifesto launched earlier this month (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, she explained that May Gurney had no materials recycling facilities with which to sort recyclables and believed that kerbside sort was both better value and better for the environment.
She said: “We are the ‘white knight' of kerbside sort in the industry at the moment. We do sometimes feel that we are a lone voice. But that does not deter us as we believe this is a winning formula.
“Some recent studies and WRAP studies have shown that whether we have commingled or kerbside sort we can get similar volumes. But 100% of what you get with kerbside sort is recycled or recovered. All the large waste management firms have infrastructure or MRFs. We don't. We are focus on resource recovery and landfill avoidance.”
MRFs
Ms Peake, who has 15 years' experience in providing services for councils and public bodies, claimed that anything from 7% to 20% of material sent to MRFs was sent to landfill after sorting which was not the case with kerbside sort.
She said: “That's why we are so passionate about kerbside sort. The sorting drives quality which means it gives a cost benefit for our clients which is why we say we are more for less.”
In order to make kerbside sorting work efficiently, Mrs Peake said that May Gurney was constantly developing vehicles and has pioneered a model which could collect food waste and dry recyclables in a single pass. With a body designed by CWS and Geesink Norba, the vehicle has already proved a success in Barnet, Bridgend and Somerset (see letsrecycle.com story).
She said: “At the moment the vehicle is leading the way in terms of being single pass and the collection volumes it can hold. The plastics are lightweight so they are stored in the high part of the vehicle, so we all the space is used.”
To make schemes successful, Mrs Peake explained that May Gurney also focused heavily on communications work, commenting: “A lot of the work we have been doing lately is on communication and engagement. We embark on that anywhere up to 12 weeks before rolling out a new service – from leafleting to running events.”
Register for free to comment