London councils seek city-wide textile bank contract

Councils across London are looking at teaming up to sell their recyclables beginning by letting a city-wide contract for the management and sale of material from textile banks.

A project has been launched London Councils and the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWaRB) to investigate opportunities for pan-London consortia contracts for the sale of materials in a bid to save money through joint procurement and shared services.

Textiles from textile banks on council-owned land will be the first material for which a contract will be put out to tender as councils look to gain more income from the sale of material. If this contract proves successful multi-borough contracts could be formed for other materials such as paper and glass.

The push for consortium contracts comes in light of the governments Waste Review, published in July 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story), which stated that due to funding constraints placed on local authorities it was particularly important for councils to work together to find efficiencies through joint procurement and shared services.

Report

Details of the proposed textiles contract were presented at a meeting of London Councils Transport and Environment Committee on February 1 in a report entitled Recycling consortium contract for textile bring banks.

In the report, Alison Ellison, policy and project manager at London Councils, stated: London Councils and LWaRB are exploring the scope for consortia contracts for the supply, servicing and sale of textiles collected from bring banks on borough-owned sites.

A consortium contract would provide a significant opportunity to revaluate bring bank provision as part of the contract to improve tonnages and income. Boroughs also stand to benefit from savings as a result of diverting textiles from landfill.

A survey conducted by LWaRB and London Councils over the summer of 2011 saw 17 of Londons 33 boroughs express an interest in the contract. However, a further three stated they were not interested or were not in a position to join. The report stated that the contract would be unlikely to incorporate all 33 London boroughs.

The project could incorporate a three year contract with suppliers with the possibility to extend to for an extra year meaning that councils that are unable to join at the beginning due to prior contractual commitments could join at a later date.

Charities

Some boroughs raised concerns about the effect that a pan London consortia contract could have on charities, as the consortia contract could also result in a number private and charitable operators being removed from council-owned sites. However the report stated that the contract could be structured to address these concerns.

Textile recyclers, both private companies and charities, have previously raised concerns that they are losing out on revenue as more councils tender contracts for textile banks (see letsrecycle.com story).

According to the document charities that currently operate textile banks in London include: Islamic Relief; Oxfam; Salvation Army; Scope; TRAID; and Variety Club.

Private textile organisations operating bring banks in London include: Black Country Rags; Chris Carey’s Collections; D & M Recycling; European (Shoe) Recycling Company; and, Green World Recycling.

The next step in the process is to identify a lead borough for the consortium which will head up the procurement process. Once identified the OJEU process can be undertaken in the name of the lead borough and the consequent contract(s) would be between them and the supplier(s).

UK

London is not the first area to look to make savings through joint textile bank procurement as last year Hertfordshires 11 councils contracted Cookstown Textile Recycling to collect the textiles from over 200 bring banks county-wide (see letsrecycle.com story).

Following in its footsteps five months later nine Welsh local authorities signed a landmark contract with JMP Wilcox (see letsrecycle.com story).