Veolia wins seven year collection deal in High Peak

The company, which already operates in three other Derbyshire districts, won the deal after an 18-month evaluation of the borough's refuse, recycling and trade waste procurement, beating three other bids including an in-house proposal.

High Peak, a largely rural borough with 90,000 residents taking in the Peak District National Park and the two market towns of Buxton and Glossop, will continue with its alternate-weekly waste and green waste collection service, dubbed “Binnovation”.

The alternate weekly scheme was originally launched in May 2006, and under the Veolia deal will be expanded to include the collection of glass, paper and cans each fortnight. Plans for adding plastic bottles to the kerbside scheme were abandoned, as the council found all bids too expensive.

But, the possibility of kitchen waste being included in the organics collection scheme is on the cards,  with the county council currently seeking to build an in-vessel composting plant at Water Swallows.

“Good deal”

Councillor John Haken, Executive Member for the Environment, said: “This is a really good deal for our residents – Veolia currently operates in three other Derbyshire districts. The quality and cost of their bid was the most competitive compared to the other tenders, including the in-house bid, and will make a saving of £114,000 a year.”

Veolia, the largest waste management company operating in the UK, said the contract further reinforced its presence in Derbyshire. The firm had recently been awarded a two-year extension to its Chesterfield contract, and will be rolling out an opt-in green waste collection service in Amber Valley next spring.

Commenting on the High Peak win, Veolia chief executive Jean-Dominique Mallet said: “I am delighted that we have won this new contract which was awarded after an exhaustive evaluation by the Council of the borough's refuse and recycling needs.

“Veolia is committed to providing the borough with an efficient and effective service which will help the council reach statutory recycling targets. The potential to include a kitchen waste collection at a future date will further help the borough maximise its landfill diversion capability,” he said.

Staff being transferred to Veolia have been told the terms and conditions of their employment and pension provision will be protected. High Peak's trade waste service will be retained as part of the contract, but the council said it could be sold off at a future date.

Recycling

Achieving a 20% recycling rate in 2006/07, High Peak's recycling rate is 10% lower than average in England and currently at the minimum target level for local authorities in England. Working with Veolia, it is now seeking to double this recycling rate by 2010.

In 2006-2007, the borough recycled 3,150 tonnes of paper – sending it to Ellesmere Port to be turned into newsprint – as well as 2,210 tonnes of glass sent to Knottingley in Yorkshire, and 335 tonnes of aluminium cans, taken to Novelis Recycling in Warrington.

Despite residents being keen to recycled plastic bottles as part of the kerbside scheme, High Peak council said they had been unable to make such a service part of the Veolia contract for cost reasons.

Councillor Haken explained: “The council wanted to include the kerbside collection of plastic bottles from people's homes in the service, but even the cheapest bidder wanted £1.5 million extra for this service over the duration of the contract. This translates to a 4% rise in council tax on its own.”

He went on: “Currently, mixed plastic bottle recycling in the UK is under-developed, costly and creates a big carbon footprint. Bottles collected in High Peak are bulked up in Stockport and sold on the open market, with 70% of our bottles being shipped to China, to be handled by low paid workers. It costs over £1,000 per tonne to empty the bottle banks in the High Peak, we then pay to transport it around the world where it may only achieve a final scrap price of £250 per tonne.”