Shanks named as ‘preferred bidder’ to work on East London waste contract

ELWA - the East London Waste Authority - has announced that Shanks Waste Services Limited has been chosen as ‘preferred bidder’ to work on a multi-million plan for dealing with everyday waste.

Shanks, chosen following a tender process lasting nearly two years, will become ELWA’s partner in providing waste disposal services across the four London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Newham and Redbridge, which between them generate over 535,000 tonnes of waste each year.

The proposals will help end ELWA’s reliance on landfill, diverting more than 67% of waste from landfill by 2016 and ensuring that ELWA meets or beats the Government’s recycling targets for 2003 and beyond.

The contract, which is for 25 years, will have a value of approximately £25 million per annum. Shanks has said it will invest more than £100 million in new waste management facilities over the life of the contract, as well as create nearly 100 new jobs in the first five years of the contract.

Shanks’ innovative solution involves waste minimisation, recycling, composting and recovery through the separation of waste at the kerbside and at Civic Amenity sites and through Biological Materials Recycling and Recovery Facilities (Bio-MRFs), which will be built on two sites in the area - Frog Island, Rainham and Jenkins Lane, Barking.

Bio-MRFs involve the bio-treatment of waste which stabilises the waste and reduces the weight and bulk of material. The residues of the process are made into fuel for use in existing power plants and industrial facilities. This form of treatment does not involve any form of incineration at the Bio-MRF and does not require any new incinerators to be built.

The Bio-MRF will be backed up by a major investment to improve existing Civic Amenity sites in all four boroughs. The revamped sites, which will become Reuse and Recycling Centres, will be much more user-friendly and will play a central part in helping ELWA meet its recycling targets.

In addition, Shanks will introduce a ‘survival bag’ initiative to boost kerbside recycling, which will support existing kerbside collection schemes underway in parts of the ELWA area.

Welcoming the selection of Shanks as ‘preferred bidder’ and future partner, ELWA’s chair, Councillor Roy Patient, said: “The competitive selection process has taken nearly two years to complete but we can be confident that we have identified the best partner for this critically important job.

“Shanks has been selected as ‘preferred bidder’ based on a range of criteria, including environmental performance, deliverability, cost, value for money and waste treatment methods proposed.”

Graham Farrant, the Clerk to ELWA, added: “Shanks has clearly demonstrated to us that it can make a major contribution to radically change the way waste is dealt with in this part of east London. The four boroughs produce over ½ million tonnes of waste each year and despite an increased awareness of the need to recycle and help the environment by producing less, that figure is still on the rise.

“With the help of the Government’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and the support of the four local Councils and Shanks, we are preparing to tackle the waste problem in the ELWA area in a new and innovative way.”

Commenting on Shanks’ success, Group Chief Executive, Michael Averill, said: “This is absolutely the right decision for ELWA and this part of east London. We have put together a solution to meet local needs and which can radically increase recycling and recovery in the four boroughs. Shanks already manages around 40 contracts with local authorities and we understand the needs of local authorities and their residents. We will be using biological technologies new to the UK which, along with new work on waste minimisation and recycling, will be able to produce really outstanding results.”

Recycling and recovery performance has been a major consideration in the Authority’s decision-making process and Shanks believes the new facilities and methods proposed can achieve a 33% recycling rate within 5 years of the start of the contract. This is more than the target for recycling in the National Waste Strategy.

Final agreement of the contract is still to be formalised, but Mr Averill says Shanks is keen to get on with the job.

“The team at Shanks has been working on this project for over two years now and they want to get stuck in as soon as possible. We already have some of the key posts filled and both the Managing Director and Commercial Director from our Waste Services division, as well as the Group Finance Director, will sit on the Board of the new company - to make sure we perform every bit as well as we have promised. This is a great opportunity for Shanks and we are going to do a first rate job for ELWA.”

The new service is likely to be launched at the start of July 2002.