Yorwaste wins £1.5m recycling contract

The three-year contract, worth an estimated £1.5 million, will see Yorwaste handle paper, cardboard, glass, cans and plastic bottles collected from households in the districts of Harrogate, Craven, Humbleton and Richmondshire.

Recyclables from all four councils will be sent to the firm’s network of waste transfer facilities across North Yorkshire, with materials from Harrogate and Craven processed at its materials recycling facility in Scarborough.

Yorwaste is jointly owned by City of York and North Yorkshire county council, but operates at arm’s length. The waste firm already holds a number of local contracts to process dry recyclables on behalf of Ryedale, Scarborough and Redcar & Cleveland borough councils.

Teckal

In September 2015, the firm was reorganised in order to achieve a ‘Teckal’ exemption under the Public Contracts Regulations – allowing public bodies to award contracts to publically-owned companies without undergoing a competitive tender process.

In order to gain the Teckal exemption, 80% of Yorwaste’s turnover must be derived through its shareholders. The changes mean that commercial waste customers across parts of Yorkshire and Teesside are now invoiced directly by North Yorkshire county council (see letsrecycle.com story).

While the latest recycling contract was put out under a competitive procurement process, in future the council will be able to award recycling contracts to the firm directly. The Teckal exemption is also expected to maximise the amount of waste delivered to the Allerton Waste Recovery Park, an energy recovery plant developed under a £1.4 billion PFI deal signed between AmeyCespa and the two councils in 2010.

‘Successful’

Steve Barker, managing director of Yorwaste, said: “This represents a significant contract for Yorwaste and we are delighted to have been successful in tendering for this work. We have been working with the four authorities since 2012 and whilst world recycling markets continue to be volatile we have been able to offer the most cost effective solution that will help the councils deliver best value whilst enabling them to meet their waste reduction and recycling targets.”

The new contracts for Harrogate, Hambleton and Richmondshire will begin this month, with Craven to follow in April 2016.

Remunicipalisation Conference

• The merits of Teckal exemptions and competitive tenders will be among the issues debated in-depth at the Remunicipalisation Conference in London on 28 January. For more information click here.