The arrangement, which began in December 2014, sees Viridor sort and process around 20,000 tonnes of materials including paper, card, tins, foil, glass, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays per year at its materials recycling facility (MRF) in Crayford, Kent.
Viridor then sells materials on to customers using its in-house Viridor Resource Management trading division.
The contract was previously held by London-based recycling firm Bywaters, which began in December 2011 and expected to generate around £962,000 in revenue for the council in its first year.
The three-year deal saw recyclables sent to Bywater’s MRF at Lea Riverside – initially handling around 17,500 tonnes of dry recyclables per year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Relationship
Simon Prior, commercial manager for Viridor, said he hoped the contract would be the beginning of a ‘strong relationship’ with Lewisham council.
Mr Prior said: “We’re very pleased to have won this contract with the London Borough of Lewisham and hope that this is the beginning of a strong relationship.
“We’re going to work in partnership with the borough to help increase the recycling rates as much as possible. This will include getting the message out that clothing and textiles are “up-cycled” or taken to local charity shops, not left in the recycling bin, to ensure that the materials we receive from the kerbside collections will be of the highest quality.
“In turn, we can then make the highest quality commodities possible to retain value in the re-manufacturing chain.”
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