At a standard board meeting, RWUK board members will look how to take forward a report on managing the risk from secondary raw material price movements – which was prepared by consultancy Eunomia in September last year.
The report highlighted a renegotiation of waste contracts between the private sector and councils as a ‘short term priority’ to offset the industry’s exposure to market volatility.
At the time of its publication, Steve Lee, chief executive of RWUK, said: “Recycling depends, in part, upon a thriving and competitive collections market that delivers best value and innovation, and encourages investment in the recycling value chain.
“Tenders where 100% of the price risk rests with the private sector contractors are now attracting fewer bidders and addressing this issue is essential if the UK is to meet its recycling targets at least cost to the public sector.”
The meeting follows reassurances this week from the Environmental Services Association – one half of RWUK – that it would address any concerns councils may have over higher fees being levied on them by MRF operators as a result of more stringent inspections (see letsrecycle.com story).
Board
The RWUK board is made up of several waste industry professionals – including two professors, three members from contractors Cory, Suez and Veolia, and the chief executive of arc21, which represents the waste interests of local authorities in Northern Ireland.
The current make-up of the board means no local authorities in Great Britain will be represented on Friday. However, separate discussions have taken place with council organisations.
[Update: 28 January. RWUK has advised letsrecycle.com that with CIWM having 40% of its membership from local authorities, chief executive Steve Lee will be representing local authorities at the RWUK meeting. Furthermore, the organisation has noted that the meeting will discuss “how best to take forward cross-sector discussions and work on price risk sharing”. RWUK has also advised that the meeting is a standard meeting (as now changed above). Editor’s note: We are grateful for the clarification of these points from RWUK and look forward to reporting on the progress of the work on price risk sharing.]
Contracts
One reprocessor told letsrecycle.com that he considered local authority contracts needed to be written “in reverse”, looking at the material which was needed by the reprocessor in the first instance, and then working back to the household.
One senior local authority officer told letsrecycle.com: “My view is that there are not standard terms of contract which you would have in road building, for example it has the ICE standard terms and conditions of the contract and something like this approach could benefit local authorities when dealing with waste and recycling contracts.”
RWUK
*RWUK, created in 2014, defines itself as: “the newly created partnership between the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) and Environmental Services Association (ESA). It is a unique partnership of the professional institution and trade association at the heart of the sustainable resources and waste management industry in the UK. It has been created to form a single voice in the interests of championing the future of resource management.”
Register for free to comment