Landmark textile bank contract awarded in Wales

The local authorities have appointed West-Midlands based JMP Wilcox as the main contractor to exclusively operate textiles banks on council property for three years from June 2011, with the option for a two year extension.

Councils involved include Torfaen, Cardiff, Newport, Monmouthshire, Powys, Blaenau Gwent, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Caerphilly and Merthyr Tydfil.

In the past, textile banks have been operated in the region by a number of different charities and companies and the local authorities have received no income from them. But now, under the new arrangement, these will be replaced by JMP Wilcox banks and the councils will receive payment, based on the tonnage Wilcox collects.

The value of the contract has not been revealed, but JMP Wilcox is rolling out at least 100 textile banks in the region and expects to collect a minimum of 1,000 tonnes of textiles a year.

The contract was let through an OJEU restricted process, which required bidders to fill out a pre-qualification questionnaire before being asked to submit a bid against the councils specifications. A total of nine companies submitted bids. Alongside JMP Wilcox, these included: Viridor; I&G Cohen; Green World Recycling; Savannah Rags; TRAID; the Salvation Army; CYLCH and BRC Global Textiles.

JMP Wilcox was selected because it offered to pay a competitive price per tonne for the textiles and its sorting facility and fleet impressed the procurement team. Importantly, it could provide on-board weighing equipment on its vehicles to accurately weigh the textiles collected at each bank which the councils had requested in order to help them split the revenue from the banks effectively and collate accurate recycling figures.

Resource Efficiency Wales

Torfaen council is the lead authority for the initiative which has been coordinated by resource efficiency consultancy Resource Efficiency Wales, formerly known as the Wales Environment Trust.

The deal is one of a number of regional contracts to be co-ordinated by Resource Efficiency Wales to achieve efficiency savings on behalf of a group of ten councils in South East Wales known as the South East Wales Waste Management Group. The group also includes the Vale of Glamorgan council but it did not wish to be a part of the textiles contract because it made a political decision to keep having Salvation Army banks.

The South East Wales Waste Management Group has similar contracts in place for glass, paper and waste electrical equipment, but none which involve so many of them.

Resource Efficiency Wales said it was the first time a contract of this nature and size has been awarded to a sole provider for the collection and reuse and recycling of textile material in Wales. A similar, larger contract was let by a group of eleven local authorities in Hertfordshire in February 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).

James Kay, south east Wales regional waste co-ordinator at Resource Efficiency Wales, described the deal as a landmark contract.

He said: This is great day for waste and resource management for Wales. This contract provides local authorities with a fair market rate income for this material stream and ensures that a professional service will be provided to all the authorities.

Cllr John Cunningham, Torfaen councils executive member for neighbourhood services said: We are delighted to be the lead authority in what is such an exciting and pioneering initiative.

I would like to thank everyone involved in putting this together and I look forward to seeing the initiative grow over the years to come.

JMP Wilcox

The textile bank deal is the largest to be let by based JMP Wilcox one of the largest textile recycling companies in the UK.

Alan Arrowsmith, national key accounts manager at the company, said: We are proud to have been chosen to operate this initiative with South East Wales Waste Management Group.

The initiative is the largest of its kind in the UK and will not only promote textile recycling in Wales but has already created jobs in the local community and will guarantee that all material collected is sorted in the UK.

The contract has been written under agreement with the Welsh Purchasing Consortium. This means that any other local authority in the Consortium which also includes Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot, Ceredigion, Swansea, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire can and are thought likely to join. For further information contact James Kay on jkay@resourceefficiencywales.co.uk