The council decided that the only way to meet its recycling targets is to implement a borough-wide kerbside collection. And the collection contract will also cover four other unitary authorities in the area including Newcastle, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland.
Andrew Yellowly, director of local environment services for Gateshead, said: “We have had the tenders back and they are currently being looked at. We expect to make a decision shortly and the substantial contract should be awarded in the next one to two months.”
Although the council has not yet produced a short-list, Premier Waste and Cheshire Recycling are thought to be strong contenders. Premier Waste is expected to supply newspapers to Shotton Paper and Cheshire Recycling will feed newspapers to the Bridgewater mill.
Gateshead's plans for a kerbside collection are outlined in its draft waste strategy which was put out for consultation in October 2001. The plan outlines the council's recycling proposals which will centre on a dry recyclable collection for paper, glass, cans and textiles. The council has received responses to the consultation and the plan will go to the council for approval before being lodged with the Secretary of State in the next few weeks.
Gateshead handles over 110,000 tonnes of waste from households and commercial premises a year, of which only 7% is recycled, and the council has decided that the best way to hit recycling targets is to introduce a kerbside collection.
Economies of scale
The council outlined its reasons for implementing a massive kerbside recycling scheme with other unitary authorities in its waste strategy. “There are potential economies of scale in working with other local authorities in developing recycling schemes, both in direct running costs and in securing long-term markets for the collected materials. Failure to secure markets will jeopardise the sustainability of this type of scheme. Markets will nevertheless become increasingly difficult to secure as most local authorities seek to substantially increase recycling
rates to meet the 2003 and 2005 Best Value standards. The council is working with
adjoining authorities and potential partners to identify opportunities for joint working
where they are beneficial.”
The council currently has recycling banks at 31 locations and explained that whilst it thought about extending the bring bank network, it concluded that this would not help to substantially increase recycling. “Past experience is such that increasing the number of recycling locations will fail to increase recycling performance sufficiently to meet the government's recycling standards and should not be pursued. This would not preclude modest organic growth or providing bank type facilities where other means of recycling household waste was found to be inappropriate.”
And while the council looked at a number of different kerbside options, it concluded that a dry recyclable collection was the best option. The council said that although participation could be increased and costs reduced by collecting waste one week and dry recyclables the next, there was much public resistance to having putrescible waste collected only once a fortnight. Gateshead council also commented on the risk of contaminating dry recyclables by placing waste into the recycling bin and the poorer quality of recyclable product due to the limitations of sorting co-mingled materials.
Register for free to comment