Manchester discussing collection contract extension

Manchester city council is currently in negotiations with EnterpriseManchester over potentially extending its waste and recycling collection contract by up to seven years.

A spokesman for the council one of Englands largest local authorities confirmed that discussions were ongoing with EnterpriseManchester over the contract, which expires in February 2015, although there is no timetable for a decision to be made.

EnterpriseManchester is a waste management services partnership between the council and utilities provider Enterprise, which was bought for 385 million in April 2013 by public services company Amey, a subsidiary of Spanish firm Ferrovial (see letsrecycle.com story).

According to the council, considerable work is required to review service specifications for either extending or retendering the contract, but in the meantime the sale of Enterprise to Amey will provide better strategic support to the joint venture and should lead to service improvements.

The city council had been in discussions with Trafford council over potentially jointly procuring a new waste collection contractor as current contracts for both authorities end at a similar time in 2015.

2012/13 performance

The discussions over a possible contract extension follow a number of changes to recycling and waste services in Manchester over the last two years since it first began rolling out fortnightly collections in 2011 in a bid to help it save 12 million (see letsrecycle.com story).

The council is setting out to achieve 11.4 million savings over the next two years.
Changes implemented by the council in 2012/13 include: increased charges for bulky waste collections; weekly school food waste collections; an additional recycling round for 7,756 households; and monthly ward waste and recycling reports.

And, a report to the council over the summer on waste and recycling shows continued improvement in performance in 2012/13 compared to the previous year, with an additional 1,500 tonnes of organic recycling collected and an additional 1,250 tonnes of dry recycling collected.

Furthermore, the year saw a 3,600 tonnes reduction in the amount of residual waste collected, although the report notes an overspend on collection costs of 250,000.
Overall, the report highlights an increase in the recycling rate to a record 36.6% against a target of 37%, which the authority puts down to an increased awareness and participation in recycling; a reduction in weight of packaging materials; and the poor economic climate.

However, the report states that this is still approximately half of the maximum possible rate that could be achieved and that increasing the rate further is financially important in 2013/14.

This is because next year, the report notes, the levy paid to the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) will increase to 32.16 million in 2013/14 from 27 million due to the increase in the disposal rate for residual waste.
2013/14 changes

Additionally, the council is hoping to implement a number of service changes next year in a bid to drive up recycling and save 541,000 over the next two years, which will be part of a waste and recycling strategy that is currently in preparation for implementation.

Potential service changes highlighted in the report include:

• Textile recycling banks to schools in Manchester in a joint initiative with the Salvation Army, with money raised going to both schools and the charity.

• The development of recycling incentive schemes.

• Weekly recycling collection pilot scheme for 20,000 households as part of DCLG funding.

• Introducing a fortnightly organic collection over winter (October-March) that will coincide with black bin collections. It will be initially run as a pilot for 10,000 households.

• Improvements to high-rise collection services.

• Reducing black bin capacity from 240 to 180 litres and extending blue and brown recycling bins to 240 litres from 140 litres to encourage recycling. Green waste bins are also set to be reduced to 180 litres from 240 litres.