The contract is worth around £4.5 million and is set to see MGB deliver wheeled bins to 250,000 households across the North East by October 2010. The first phase of the roll-out has seen the company working in Gateshead since January to deliver the 240 litre blue wheeled bins, replacing the existing 55 litre kerbside boxes. These will be rolled out to 84,000 households in the city by the end of July.
Conor Sugrue, general manager at MGB, said: “It is a unique contract to be involved with in a number of ways. Not only is this the biggest contract of wheeled bins in the UK in 2010 but also because we are supplying straight to households.
“Our delivery service will see us take these wheeled bins direct to the household from our factory in Rotherham so there is no requirement to store at any of three council depots, which takes a lot of hassle away from the local authorities.”
Service
The new collection service being introduced by the three councils is not fully commingled as it will include an inner caddy to keep paper separate from glass, cardboard, cans and plastic in the main body of the bin. The contract to supply the 25litre inner caddy has been awarded to Leeds-based container manufacturer Straight.
Material collected under the new collection service will be taken to H W Martin's materials recycling facility (MRF) in Leeds. The Derbyshire-based firm was awarded the sorting contract in May 2010 and intends to develop a MRF in the North East in the near future (see letsrecycle.com story).
MGB Plastics has previously distributed bins to Gateshead but said it is the first time it has worked with South Tyneside and Sunderland city councils. It has also worked with Walsall metropolitan borough council and Hull city council.
The contract to supply the bins had been awarded to German firm SSI Schaeffer, however, minutes from a South Tyneside council Select Committee meeting in June 2010 revealed that MGB was chosen due to an issue over the associated lead-in times for delivering the bins.
The container manufacturer is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Irish investment firm One51, which purchased bin company Titan Environmental in September 2008 and rebranded it MGB Plastics.
PFI
In addition to rolling out a new kerbside collection service in the region, the South Tyne and Wear Waste Partnership is currently tendering a multi-million pound, 25-year waste contract, which has £73.5 million in PFI-funding.
And, in December 2009, the three council partnership unveiled waste management firm SITA UK and services company United Utilities as the final contenders for the contract (see letsrecycle.com story).
Register for free to comment