New £5m waste plan will increase recycling rates

Wolverhampton Council is set to agree a £5m waste disposal contract which would increase recycling rates and reduce rubbish going to landfill.

The proposed contract would ensure its waste teams could deliver "green waste, household waste recycling centre... wastes, skips and mixed loads of fly-tipping directly to compliant providers", a report said.

The authority's existing disposal contract ends in October and the new one would run for an initial three years, with an option to extend it for a further year.

A cabinet report said the procurement would "combine contracts for waste services, grounds maintenance and fly-tipping". The cabinet will meet on Wednesday.

As part of the plan, the council wants the new provider to recycle household rubble, plasterboard and hard plastics from tips at a cost of £1.48m.

It will also want it to deal with recycling mattresses and soft furnishings containing persistent organic pollutants for £1.8m.

Across four years, up to £1.38m would be spent on the contract for recycling garden waste from kerbside collections and tips as well as green waste collected by council staff.

The contract includes £432,000 for a provider to accept, recycle and dispose of mixed loads of skip and fly-tipping waste.

It also includes £100,000 to dispose of hazardous wastes including gas bottles, household chemicals and commercial fridges and £64,600 to incinerate clinical waste.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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