Tunbridge Wells awards Cory 23m collection deal

The deal involves the London-based waste management company taking over collections for the council's 47,000 households from current contractor Veolia on March 30.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com today, a spokeswoman for the council said that a competitive tender process had meant that, by awarding the contract to Cory, the Kent local authority had “saved around £800,000 in the first year”.

She cited the council's existing high recycling and composting rate and residents' commitment to recycling as factors that had made the contract a “prestigious” award for bidders.

Tunbridge Wells achieved a 46.03% household waste recycling and composting rate in 2007/08, placing it in the top 50 performing local authorities in England.

The deal – which also covers street cleansing and litter collection services – will add mixed can and plastic bottle collections to the existing list of materials that Tunbridge Wells residents can recycle at the kerbside.

It has been reported that the cans and plastic bottles will be sent to the materials recycling facility operated by Waste Recycling Group subsidiary Kent Enviropower at Allington, near Maidstone.

Enhance

Councillor Paul Barrington-King, portfolio holder for environment and street scene at the council, claimed the arrangement would serve to enhance the current recycling service.

“This is great news for the people of Tunbridge Wells,” he said. “We are able to provide a doorstep recycling service for cans and plastic bottles for the first time without compromising any other aspects of service.

“We look forward to working with Cory on what, I am sure, will be a very successful partnership,” he added.

Under Veolia's current service, residents use a twin bin system – with one receptacle for residual waste and the other for food and garden waste – and a green box which is used for paper and card recycling, all of which are collected fortnightly.

Food and garden waste is sent to New Earth Solution's 50,000 tonne-a-year capacity in-vessel composting facility at Blaise Farm Quarry, near Maidstone, which opened in September 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, paper and card collected at the kerbside is currently sent to either Aylesford Newsprint's mill or Nordic Recycling's mill, both of which are located in Kent.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com today, a spokeswoman for Cory said that the council was currently asking residents for their views on whether the change of contractor should be accompanied by the use of new containers.

She added that cans and plastic bottles were set to be added to collections during the summer, while the firm has also said that there is the potential to add more materials to the service over the course of the contract.

Tunbridge Wells' residents currently have to take plastic bottles and cans to recycling centres, alongside materials including glass and textiles.

The council spokeswoman said that, from there, plastic bottles were currently collected by Viridor and taken to a facility in south-east London, while cans were collected by AM Metals in Sittingbourne, Kent.

Following the announcement of the deal, Paul Redman, director of Cory's municipal services business, said: “I am delighted that Cory has won this prestigious contract, enabling us to develop a real working relationship with Tunbridge Wells borough council, and to provide high quality services to residents and visitors for the next 10 years.”