New £37m refuse & recycling deal

available as Council get ready to appoint a new contractor

Councillors are set to appoint a new refuse contractor to run the hugely successful orange sack recycling scheme.

A report to the environmental and public services committee on April 28 will recommended that Biffa Waste Services be awarded the new eight year contract for collecting household waste.

The £37m contract will provide doorstep collections to 85,000 households, emptying of bulk bins on housing estates and apartment blocks as well as collections from up to 1600 recycling banks.

The amount of waste collected for recycling in Wandsworth has doubled since the orange sack scheme was launched in April 2003.

The new contract will require all waste to be placed at the front of the property whether in bins or bags - or orange sacks if containing recyclable material.

The 'front of house' arrangement already works well for the orange sack scheme. Its extension to other household waste is expected to bring a substantial reduction in the number of missed collections.

The company, which is a subsidiary of Severn Water plc, has also invested in state of the art web technology which enables it to track the progress of vehicles throughout the day. The system can pinpoint a vehicle's location at any time and records when individual streets have been cleared.

Cabinet member for environment and public services Guy Senior said:

"The new contract is geared towards providing a seamless refuse collection service. The technology will enable the contractor to anticipate problems and act quickly on complaints. The contractor will be expected to meet customer expectations for a prompt and reliable doorstep collection and work with the council to achieve even higher recycling levels."

The doorstep recycling collection enables householders to place paper, cardboard, tin, glass, and plastic bottles in a single orange sack. The council is currently increasing the number of recycling banks on housing estates - up from just over 400 to 1,600. Just like the orange sacks estate residents will be able to place all their recycleables in the same bank.

If approved by councillors the new contract will begin in September 2004.

26th March 2004