Liverpool pledges 400,000 for new kerbside recycling programme

Bidders for the work are thought to include Onyx Environmental as well as a joint bid from the local community group Bulky Bobs with ECT Recycling of London. The council is expected to choose a contractor later this month.

Liverpool has a reputation of being a city where waste management has always been a big issue. Local sources say that historically it is one of the most visible services and one that impacts closely on the lives of householders – it proved a battleground between the unions and the council in the 1980s. Last year the city's performance in recycling and associated issues was described by the Audit Commission as “poor but with promising prospects for improvement.”

The Commission found that many street based services, including recycling, performed poorly in comparison with other metropolitan councils, and service costs were high. However, it found that residents were more satisfied with refuse collection services and were complimentary about the free bulky items collection.

Onyx's success in winning the refuse collection contract with the city was a major achievement for the private sector but now the company is facing stiff competition in a new direction, the community sector. Already two kerbside recycling pilot schemes, organised by local “social enterprise” organisations, have been running for the past few months. Energywise Recycling is running schemes in Granby and Dingle while Stanley Environmental is collecting glass and aluminium in the north of the city.

Bulky Bobs knows the city streets well through its work recycling furniture and other household items as part of the city's Furniture Recycling Centre. ECT Recycling is rapidly establishing itself as a powerful force in kerbside collections, having won many contracts in London. It has work outside of the capital although usually only for smaller district councils.

Bulky Bobs teamed up with Liverpool City Council to develop its scheme which sees collections of any household items normally arranged within one week. Sofas and chairs are re-upholstered at the Furniture Resource Centre while electrical goods such as refrigerators, washing machines and cookers are repaired at CREATE. The reconditioned goods are then available to buy at a lower cost for low-income residents.

• Mersey Waste Holdings has extended an existing agreement with a new five-year contract going to Cory Environmental to manage over 1.4 million tonnes of municipal waste from the Merseyside area until 2008.