Cabinet agrees ‘first steps towards a new waste and recycling service’

Bridgend County Borough Council has agreed to explore ambitious new plans for how household waste and recycling could be collected and dealt with in future.

Among the various options under consideration are increasing the types of different materials that households can recycle, improving methods of collection, introducing a new fleet of cleaner, greener ultra-low emission collection vehicles and more.

The authority will also explore issues such as whether the new service should be outsourced, provided in-house or possibly provided as part of a partnership with neighbouring local authorities.

The service, which is currently contracted to Kier Services Limited, has been outsourced to commercial operators since 2003 and is subject to renewal every seven years.

With the current contract due to end on 31 March 2024, Kier have confirmed that they intend to leave the waste market in order to focus on other areas of business, and have no plans to submit a tender for continuing to run the service.

However, future Welsh Government recycling targets have not yet been announced, and new legislative requirements are imminent which could also potentially affect any new service.

To ensure that there is enough time for the new arrangements to take account of these important factors, Cabinet members have agreed to look at all post-March 2024 options, including whether to go out to tender for a possible two-year contract as an interim measure.

This would ensure that the household recycling and waste service could continue in the meantime while the authority develops its longer-term plans.

This marks the first steps in the development of an all-new new waste and recycling service for Bridgend County Borough.

The temporary arrangement would cover the period up to 2026 to ensure that waste and collection services could continue in the short term while the council takes full account of the emerging national picture, and uses it to build the new long-term service model.

It would mean that the authority will have time to ensure that any new waste and recycling service is capable of hitting its targets while delivering maximum benefits, both for the council and for local residents, while also enabling extensive public consultation on any proposed changes to how the future service might operate.

Cllr John Spanswick, Cabinet Member for Communities

Council officers will now start exploring available options and will deliver further reports and updates to Cabinet as the proposals develop.