A consortium headed by services company Serco has today (August 12) been named as preferred bidder for Sandwell metropolitan borough council's £650 million integrated waste and recycling contract.
The bid, which also involves organics specialists Jack Moody, materials recycling facility (MRF) operator Pure Recycling and the operators of the Coventry incinerator, the Coventry & Solihull Waste Disposal Company, was chosen ahead of the other remaining bidder, Biffa Waste Services, as the council's top selection for the 25-year deal.
Waste services in Sandwell have needed to be modernised for some time and this contract means within a few years we will be delivering one of the best services in the country which is exactly what the borough's residents deserve
Cllr Derek Rowley, Sandwell metropolitan borough council
The contract involves running the West Midlands council's household waste and recycling collections and street cleansing services and is also set to involve the winning bidder developing a waste transfer station at the proposed Pikehelve ‘Eco Park', in West Bromwich, which the council received outline planning permission for in February 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story).
The contract is intended to deliver the council's ‘Waste Improvement Plan', which also involves eventually sending up to 60,000 tonnes-a-year of its residual waste to be turned into energy at the Four Ashes energy-from-waste incinerator that neighbouring Staffordshire county council plans to build under its waste PFI deal (see letsrecycle.com story).
Target
Sandwell claims that the contract, which is expects to sign before the scheduled commencement date of November 1, will help it to achieve its target of recycling 60% of its waste by 2020, turning 35% of it into energy and sending less than 5% to landfill.
It plans to continue its roll out of blue wheeled bins for kerbside commingled recycling collections, allowing residents to recycle more materials including plastics and cardboard, as well as introducing a food waste recycling service during 2011.
Commenting on the choice of Serco, councillor Derek Rowley, cabinet member for safer neighbourhoods, said: “This is great news for both Sandwell council and Serco but, most importantly, it's great news for the residents of Sandwell who will benefit from cleaner streets and the introduction of environmentally friendly state of the art recycling services.
“Waste services in Sandwell have needed to be modernised for some time and this contract means within a few years we will be delivering one of the best services in the country which is exactly what the borough's residents deserve,” he added.
Serco
The contract represents services company Serco's biggest waste and recycling success to date, after it was awarded a £160 million collections deal by the London borough of Bexley in November 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story) and signed an £80 million collections deal with Milton Keynes council in December 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Today's news was welcomed by Serco's bid director, Robin Davies, who said: “Serco are extremely delighted to be partnering Sandwell Council on this groundbreaking contract which is a significant addition to our environmental services portfolio.
“We are excited about the prospect of welcoming our new colleagues and working in partnership with the council to deliver a step change in the quality of services delivered to the residents of Sandwell,” he added.
The company said that, after consulting with residents, it planned to introduce measures including its ‘space saver' initiative, which aims to give residents choice and flexibility around bin sizes according to their needs, while maintaining weekly waste collections.
It also plans to incentivise Sandwell's residents to sustain a better environment by introducing a fund to reward recycling efforts. A board selected from local stakeholders will identify potential community projects for funding such as the creation of community allotments and wildlife areas, and the refurbishment of parks and play areas.
Consortium
Serco acknowledged that the breadth of the contract meant it was outside its normal areas of operation, and that this had prompted it to develop a consortium with local companies Jack Moody, Pure Recycling and Coventry & Solihull Waste Disposal.
“In order to provide the council and residents of Sandwell with the most cost effective quality service, Serco have led a consortium of local ‘best in class' specialist companies with a long and successful track record in the elements of this contract which fall outside of Serco's previous service delivery,” a spokesman explained.
He added: “The unique benefit of Serco's proposals for waste transfer infrastructure is that all of the sites, plants and facilities currently exist or are in the final stage of construction.
Non-PFI
Sandwell originally began procuring the integrated waste and recycling deal in August 2008 after deciding in 2008 to ‘go it alone' and not seek PFI funding support for the procurement (see letsrecycle.com story).
The council announced an initial shortlist of five bidders for the deal in November 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story), before narrowing this down to three in March 2009 (see letsrecycle.com story), and further reducing it to just two final contenders in November 2009.
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