The Isle of Wight Council is a step closer to selecting a company to deliver a new waste contract for the Island which aims to increase recycling and minimise the amount of household waste sent for landfill.
From the nine companies that expressed an interest in bidding for the contract and passed the pre-qualification stage, five have been shortlisted to progress to the next stage of the tender process.
The five companies shortlisted are: Biffa, AmeyCespa, Veolia, Viridor and Serco (a consortium), and FCC Environment. Each has been invited to submit proposals on how they plan to collect and process the Island’s waste while meeting the strict targets set by the council.
Councillor Luisa Hillard, Cabinet member for sustainability, said:
“It is still early days in the process but I trust the initial solutions for the collection, recycling and treatment of our residential waste will be an exciting mix of innovation and proven technology that should help the Island to become more sustainable, as aspired to in the Framework for Change.”
Under the new contract, the bidders have been set a requirement to achieve a recycling and composting rate for all municipal waste on the Island of 55 per cent by 2020 and 60 per cent by 2025. The new contract will also require the contractor to achieve a 90 per cent diversion from landfill rate of all municipal waste by 2025.
More generally, the council has specified that the new contract will:
- Maximise recycling and recovery of energy;
- Maximise the diversion of waste from landfill;
- Meet the council’s legal and strategic objectives; and
- Reduce the long term financial commitment for waste management for the council.
Councillor Jonathan Gilbey, Cabinet member for resources, said:
“We are determined this contract will be to the Island’s long-term advantage, both in terms of achieving the best possible recycling rates and an efficient and economically-viable waste collection and processing service for Island residents.
“The new contract provides us with the opportunity to analyse and review in detail how we collect and use our waste on the Island, especially with a view to our increasing population and the amount of waste we produce and recycle.”
The new contract, due to start in October 2015, will replace the existing integrated municipal waste contract which has been operated by Island Waste Services (a subsidiary of Biffa) since 1997.
