Viridor and Rochford council secure £1.3m contract extension

The contract will see kerbside collected material including glass, paper, card, plastics,  pots, tubs, trays and aluminium cans received at the facility.

Viridor has held a contract with the council for five years, and the renewal came into effect in November.

Viridor’s lead of local authority development and integrated contracts, Simon Prior, said: “Rochford district council continues to engage with its residents about recycling and the importance of high quality, low contamination collections in a very clear and encouraging way.

“Viridor is keen to work with the council to continue to emphasise how the separation work families do at home makes a difference to meeting UK recycling targets and empowering the circular economy”.

Polymers

As part of the contract, Viridor’s Rochester polymers recycling facility will also carry out the secondary sorting of coloured bottles and pots, tubs and trays from the plastic stream.

The company said this will provide polymers feedstock for Viridor’s new Avonmouth polymers reprocessing facility which has been designed to create recycled plastic flake and pellet for consumer brands.

Rochford district council recorded a recycling rate of 60.9% in 2018/19, the seventh highest local authority in the UK.

Continued relationship

Commercial director at Viridor, Paul Ringham, said the company was “pleased to continue its relationship” with the council after more than five years of “demonstrating the value of maximising opportunities to recycle and influence the onward journey of dry mixed recycling”.

“As Rochford is one of the top recycling authorities in the country, we are happy to renew our partnership with Viridor”

Cllr Arthur Williams, Rochford district council

Councillor Arthur Williams, portfolio holder for environment, added: “As Rochford district council is one of the top recycling authorities in the country, we are happy to renew our partnership with Viridor. Our residents and the councils waste team are committed to continuing our endeavour to reduce the districts environmental footprint with our recycling bin scheme and, with Viridor’s help, we hope to continue with this high level of service.”