Decision Maker: Director of Environment and Planning
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: No
Lancashire County Council is the Waste Disposal Authority for the administrative county of Lancashire. The Authority operates and manages fifteen Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs), thirteen of which is where hard plastic waste can be deposited by members of the public.
Examples of hard plastics, sometimes called rigid plastics, include plastic storage containers; buckets and bins; plastic patio furniture; large children’s toys; plastic gutters, downpipes and utility pipes; wheelie bins; compost bins and water butts; plastic plant pots; car bumpers; and traffic cones and barriers.
Hard plastics can be recycled by sorting the plastics according to polymer type and cleaned, then shredding into flakes or melting into pellets, before being moulded into new goods.
Since April 2021, the Authority has been operating informal trial agreements to manage the disposal of hard plastics. These arrangements started out as a temporary measure as the Authority adjusted its waste management operations to accommodate separating out hard plastic from waste destined for landfill.
However, in recent months, the trial supplier has struggled to meet service delivery expectations and has at times been unable to accept hard plastic waste or requested significant increases in gate fee. As such, there is currently a pause on separating out hard plastic waste, with the waste instead going into the non-recyclable containers on the HWRCs and sent to landfill.
A formally procured contract is now required to fully test the market and comply with Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
The procurement will consist of two lots covering different areas of the county of Lancashire. The resulting framework agreements requires the acceptance and recycling of hard plastic that is delivered into the provider by the Authority and/or it's transport contractor from the HWRCs.
The framework agreements will be for an initial period of two years, with the option to extend for any number of defined periods up to a further two years, to commence on or around 01 February 2025.
Andrew Mullaney, Director of Environment and Planning took a decision to approve commencement of procurement to establish two framework agreements for the provision of acceptance and recycling of hard plastic services. The services will commence on 1 February 2025 and have an initial term of two years, with the option to extend for any number of defined periods up to a further two years. The procurement process will be an Open Above Threshold tender process.
Divisions Affected: N/A;
Contact: Anthony Atkinson Email: anthony.atkinson@lancashire.gov.uk Tel: 01772 538905.
Date of decision: 01/10/2024
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