Viridor has been awarded a seven-year contract worth £20 million to process approximately 50,000 tonnes per year of dry mixed recyclables from East Sussex county council. The company already holds a contract for processing some material from the county.
The deal – which begins on the 29th June – will see material from all five district and borough councils in the area sorted at Viridor’s Crayford Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in Kent.
All five councils in East Sussex will send their kerbside recyclate to Viridor
Viridor said the material, including paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays, aluminium cans, steel cans and glass, will be sorted into “high-quality commodities for onward sale into the recycling markets”.
The company added that plastics collected under the deal will “continue its onward processing journey to Viridor’s specialist recycling plants, including Rochester Polymers Recycling Facility in Kent and Skelmersdale Polymers Reprocessing Facility in Lancashire”.
Simon Prior, Viridor’s head of local authority development, said: “Our internal bid and development team’s submitted a high-quality bid and we are delighted to be awarded the contract to continue our work with East Sussex directly.
“Processing the county’s high quality recyclables provide high quality resources to support the growing circular economy. In addition, our social value proposition provides the opportunity for local environmental-based projects to apply for grants from a new joint East Sussex-Viridor board.”
Changes
The contract comes amid significant changes in waste contract across East Sussex, prompted by Kier announcing in 2017 its intention to withdraw from its contract early, which was due to run until 2023 (see letsrecycle.com story).
In January 2019, it was announced that Biffa would be taking over the collection contract for three East Sussex councils – Hastings, Rother and Wealden – while Eastbourne moved in-house and Lewes had a separate collection contract with Viridor.
Viridor’s Rochester facility, where some of the plastic collected will be recycled
Last week, it was announced that the councils under the new Biffa contract will see glass added to commingled collections from later this month and containers, such as Tetrapaks, dropped, in order to allow all district and borough councils in East Sussex to collect the same mix of dry recycling which will be processed through the deal with Viridor.
Under the council’s existing contract with Kier, residents are provided with a black wheeled bin for residual waste alongside a green bin or pink sack for commingled plastic, tins/cans and paper/card and a separate black box for glass.
However, the changes coming into effect once Biffa takes over the contract on June 29, will see residents asked to place glass in their green recycling bin or pink sack alongside the other commingled recyclables ready to be sorted by Viridor.
Glass had previously been sent separately to a sorting plant in Warwickshire.
East Sussex county council also sends some other material to Veolia’s MRF at Hollingdean, which cannot accept glass and is operated under a PFI contract with East Sussex county council. The material is understood to be from Brighton & Hove council, which is also a signatory to the PFI contract.
‘Track record’
Commenting on the Viridor contract, Rupert Clubb, East Sussex county council director of communities, economy and transport, said: “We’re pleased to be joining forces with a company that has a proven track record of working with local authorities to process recyclables. Along with our colleagues in local district and borough councils, we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with Viridor, working to continue to ensure as much of the county’s waste as possible is recycled.”
The post Viridor to process all East Sussex recyclate appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
