Edinburgh terminates waste procurement to save jobs

By Amy North, LetsRecycle.com

In a surprise move, Edinburgh city council has dropped plans to outsource its waste collection service to Enterprise due to concerns about the job losses involved with moving from a source-separated to commingled collection scheme.

Services company Enterprise was expected to be named preferred bidder for the £210 million contract after beating off competition from Kier and Shanks in October 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story). The company was planning to introduce a commingled collection of dry recyclables as part of the contract.

The proposed seven-year deal was set to save the council up to £72 million whilst the internal alternative would only achieve net savings of £45 million.

However, councillors voted on Thursday (November 24) to keep the contract in-house. The vote was close with 31 councillors, mainly Labour and Scottish National Party members, in favour of the termination and 25 councillors against. Edinburgh is a Liberal Democrat led council.

The council now intends to implement an ‘internal improvement strategy’ which will maintain its current service.

Separate collections

Collecting recyclables commingled requires fewer collection operatives than source separated collections, because material is sorted at a materials recycling facility (MRF) rather than at the kerbside by hand.

Labour councillor Andrew Burns, who voted in favour of the termination, said the loss of jobs overruled the potential savings.

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, Cllr Burns said: “The overall impact of outsourcing the contract meant a net loss of 100 more jobs than the in-house solution. We felt on balance that it did not represent the best value.”

Councillor Burns said that as part of the internal improvement plan separate collections of dry recyclables would continue. Residents in Edinburgh currently have an alternate fortnightly collection of dry recyclables. Cardboard and plastic is collected in a red box, glass and metal in a blue box and paper in a blue bag.

Service

In two reports which were put before councillors at the November 24 meeting, Enterprise was recommended as the preferred bidder for the waste collection contract ahead of the existing in-house team.

Enterprise was planning on investing £40 million in a fleet of vehicles, new technology, depot improvements and the containers needed to implement the recycling collection change. Enterprise also committed to increasing the city’s recycling rate to over 60% by 2018.

The council's in-house team was also planning to invest in vehicles for its in-house service, but only had a short-term recycling target of 51% by 2013/14.

Enterprise also highlighted a commitment to reduce the carbon footprint of its service by 40% over the life of the contract whilst the council’s in-house service stated no specific targets.

The contract would have represented one of Enterprise’s more high-profile waste and recycling successes however the services company was named preferred bidder for a £300 million deal with the London borough of Ealing in July 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).

No-one at Enterprise was available for comment.

Black sacks

Meanwhile a pilot scheme to improve the collection of household waste across Edinburgh could see black refuse sacks replaced by communal containers or gull-proof bags following the on-going problem litter being spread by seagulls attacking the bags.

The pilot was part of the Modernising Waste Project which was set up in 2010 to provide alternative methods of waste collection for the city centre. The findings of the pilot will be considered by the council tomorrow (November 29).

Commenting on the pilot councillor Robert Aldridge said: “Black sack collections have well passed their use-by date - being so vulnerable to gulls and vermin, they lead to unsightly rubbish being strewn across pavements.”

“On street communal containers are quicker and easier to service than gull proof bags, and have a greater impact on recycling behaviour,” he added.