The London borough of Waltham Forest has chosen Kier as its new waste and recycling collections contractor, in a deal that could be worth over 90 million to the services company.
Bedfordshire-based Kier is now set to begin running the service on October 3, taking over from current contractor Verdant, which is now part of Biffa.
Verdant had been scheduled to run the contract until at least April 2012, but Waltham Forest decided in November 2010 to terminate the 30 million contract early. It claimed the existing deal with Verdant did not allow it to introduce additional services it believed were needed to improve the boroughs waste and recycling performance (see letsrecycle.com story).
This triggered an eight-month procurement process, which began in December 2010 and culminated this month (June 14) with the councils cabinet endorsing the choice of Kier to take over the service. Council documents reveal the contract will be worth 6.05 million a year and will last for eight years with the potential for a seven year extension, taking its potential value to just over 90 million.
Under the new contract, Kier is set to begin collecting residual waste and dry recycling from households on the same day every week and will also begin the process of replacing the black boxes residents currently use for kerbside recycling collections with a green wheeled bin.
At the same time as this, the boroughs residents will also be given the option to downsize their existing black wheeled bin which is used for residual waste and the councils kerbside garden and food waste service, which uses a brown wheeled bin, will become an opt out option.
The option with households with a shared frontage to use shared bins will also be introduced.
Recycling rate
The measures come as Waltham Forest, which has a compulsory recycling scheme for households, looks to improve its relatively low household waste recycling rate, which was 27.77% in 2009/10.
The council is also bidding to save 65 million on its total spending over the next four years in the face of what it said was increased demand on vital services such as social care.
Councillor Clyde Loakes, cabinet member for the environment at Waltham Forest, said: This contract is good news for Waltham Forest as it means improved services for residents, increased value for money and higher levels of recycling and reuse.
Under the new agreement, residents will enjoy same-day collections for recycling and black bin rubbish, and well be reducing the number of vehicles on our roads, meaning less traffic, less pollution and less cost to the taxpayer.
As well as residual and organic waste and recycling collections from households, Kier will also be responsible for: providing a bulky waste collection and reuse service; the cleansing of Walthamstow Market; a commercial waste service; and, an optional clinical waste collection service.
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