Manufacturing firm Taylor said it was pleased that the funding awards had been finalised so that local authorities and the waste industry could get on with putting new plans in place.
Julian Gaylor, Sales and Marketing Director at Taylor, said: We welcome todays announcement for two reasons. Firstly, it means that those local authorities that have received funding will now be able to move forward with their planned schemes and make recycling easier for the communities in which they serve. Secondly, it means that the uncertainty for local authorities and the organisations that work closely with them has now been lifted.
He added: We have already been in discussions with a number of local authorities following the announcement and like Taylor they are pleased with the outcome and are now excited about the prospect of making recycling more accessible and efficient throughout their regions.
Impact unclear
Meanwhile, chief executive of Straight plc Jonathan Straight was also pleased the funding allocations had been concluded, but was unhappy with how long it has taken and the amount of information provided by DCLG with regards to the future impact of the awards.
This is the first direct funding for recycling on such a scale for at least a decade and it is very welcome. Much of the industry has been in a state of paralysis with councils waiting to see if they were getting funding before placing orders, he said.
However, it is very hard to tell at the moment what the impact of this funding will be as very little detail has been released. DCLG has said that to give more information would have an adverse effect on competition between prospective companies and potentially put local authorities in a disadvantageous position. We don’t understand what this means, nor how the situation will be any different if the information is released at a later date. For Jonathan Straights full reaction to the DCLG funding awards announcement, read his opinion piece for letsrecycle.com here.
Tenders
Sales executive at Direct Mouldings, Adam Garcia, also cautiously welcomed DCLGs awards announcement, but expressed his hope that future waste collection tenders would go to UK manufacturers rather than companies overseas.
He said: We would like to have some of the UK councils approach us for some UK manufactured products instead of going abroad to Germany and further afield where they can get the same products right here in the UK and with a much shorter lead time, without the costly transportation fees involved.
The department for communities and local government (DCLG) yesterday (22 Nov) revealed the 90 projects from 85 councils that will receive financial support from the 250m weekly collection fund, with communities secretary Eric Pickles claiming the awards will help more than six million families.
The allocation of funding includes almost 30m for Birmingham City Council to implement a recycling reward scheme and to move a further 100,000 households from fortnightly to weekly waste collections. Bournemouth Borough Council together with Dorset Waste Partnership also received nearly 22m for two recycling and waste schemes. The full list of successful bids can be seen here.
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