Kingston signs 3.5m waste and recycling contract

The agreement will see the company build on its existing contract to deliver the London borough's street cleansing services, and will involve it delivering an improved household recycling collection from August 2008.

Welcoming the announcement of the deal, which has the potential to be extended for a further seven years, Veolia's municipal development director, Martin Frood, said: “We are delighted to be continuing our long term partnership with the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, which includes our successful street cleaning and winter road maintenance operations.”

“We look forward to delivering the service changes that will see the borough at the forefront of recycling in London,” he added.

Veolia will provide a weekly recycling box collection instead of the current fortnightly service offered by previous contract holder Sita, with additional materials, including portable batteries, cardboard, liquid food and drink cartons and directories added to the list of items that householders can place in their 55 litre green boxes for recycling.

At the same time, the currently-weekly collection of household waste destined for landfill will be reduced to a fortnightly service from August 2008, with the wheelie bin used for the collections increased in size from 140 litres to 180 litres.

And, from August, Veolia will also offer weekly collection of both cooked and uncooked food waste, using a 25 litre container.

Residents of flats in Kingston will also see their collections change under the new service, with a combination of mini-recycling centres and door-to-door collections set to be rolled out gradually to flats from this autumn.

Cooling off

The deal with Veolia was originally approved by the council's executive committee in March, as part of a major overhaul of the borough's waste and recycling services as it aims to boost its recycling rate from 25% to 40% by March 2010 (see letsrecycle.com).

A spokesman for Veolia told letsrecycle.com that today's official announcement came at the end of a required “cooling-off period” following the council's initial decision.

Berrylands

The introduction of the new service follows the success of a similar trial scheme operated by the council in the Berrylands area since March 2007.

Covering 2,500 households, the trial led to halving in the amount of waste sent to landfill and the amount of material placed in the green recycling boxes almost doubling, and council has said that the success of the scheme has influenced its borough-wide plans.