An announcement about the contract, estimated to be worth 600,000 a year, has been expected for several weeks.
But, it is thought that the parties involved have delayed making any statement because finalising contractual arrangements has taken much longer than expected. This is thought to be partly because of legal complications and also because of the complexity of the work involved which includes arrangements for collections from depots.
The legal side concerns an Office of Fair Trade assessment of the project following a complaint at the beginning of the year. The OFT told letsrecycle.com last week that it is still looking at the principles of the contract and that no decisions on whether a formal investigation would be carried out have yet been made.
There is no suggestion that the complaint or investigation concerns UPM-Kymmene, but rather that it focuses on the principle of councils coming together to sell recyclable materials in one large contract.
Complaint
The complaint registered with the OFT is that this type of approach to a contract discriminates unfairly against smaller firms who could not bid for the contract because of its large size. But, the Waste and Resources Action Programme, which helped develop the contract idea, has said it thinks the approach is acceptable.
The results of advice from counsel given to the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation, which arranged the contract, is not known but it is expected that legal advisors will give a go-ahead for the award.
Bids were invited last year for the contract by the Midlands Recycling Consortium – which includes Warwickshire County Council, Daventry district council, Kettering borough council, Leicestershire county council, Northamptonshire county council and other local authorities in the area – for the 12,000 tonnes of recovered paper generated by the councils each year. Contractors could offer to collect the paper or simply receive it at their yards or mills.
It is expected that Shotton will use most of the paper at its UK mill although with good stocks some paper may be exported.
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