Under the 110,000 contract Straight will provide more than 35,000 properties in the area with a five litre solid kitchen caddy and a 23 litre kerbside caddy, one for the kitchen and one for outside.
The firm is set to begin rolling out the new containers in August, in time for the start of weekly food waste collections in the district which commence on October 1 2012. Once collected, the food waste will be sent to waste management firm Vertals anaerobic digestion plant in Mitcham.
Commenting on the contract, Jonathan Straight, chief executive of Straight, said: We are extremely pleased to be working with Tandridge district council to assist with the implementation of their new food waste collection. Using our Kitchen Caddy and Kerbside Caddy provides a simple, effective and proven food waste collection system, which works very well.
Councillor Tony Elias, chairman of the councils community services committee, added: Following feedback from neighbouring local authorities who have already introduced a food waste collection and use these products, we decided to use the 5 litre Kitchen Caddy and 23 litre Kerbside Caddy as they are extremely robust products, easy to clean and are ideal sizes for food waste collection. We hope to make a significant impact on our recycling rate.
The council said it hopes the service will help increase its recycling rate from 33% to 63%.
Service
The food waste collections are being introduced as part of wider changes to the service, which were announced in May 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Other service changes coming in in October include waste contractor Biffa collecting dry recyclables on an alternate weekly basis. Following the move dry recyclables will be collected commingled which Biffa said would allow residents to recycle a wider range of materials including: paper, cans, foil, glass, plastics and Tetra Pak cartons.
Tandridge commenced its 14-year contract with Biffa, worth 30 million, in October 2005.
iESE
The news of the contract with Straight comes less than a week after the council announced that it was the first local authority to commit to using the UKs first waste services framework (see letsrecycle.com story).
However the local authority will not be using the waste services part of the framework but instead is using it to procure landscaping and grounds maintenance work. It is expected that the council will be unable to use the framework for waste and recycling collections as its collection contract will not be available for tender during the frameworks four-year lifespan.
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