23/06/2008
Big improvements to city's waste and recycling service
New steps are being taken to improve Liverpool's waste and recycling service and at the same time, keep costs down.
The city council intends to award Enterprise-Liverpool with a seven year multi-million pound contract to carry out Liverpool's kerbside collection services.
Household waste contained in purple bins will continue to be collected weekly. However, residents will see improvements being made in the first 18 months, including:
The introduction of bank holiday collections which mean residents' collections will be unaffected throughout the year (excluding Christmas and New Year's Day).
A weekly blue box recycling service is to be rolled out to 31,000 terraced properties.
New technology in refuse vehicles will provide real time information, so any enquiries about the collection service will be answered immediately.
An enhanced scheme to passageways at the rear of terraced houses on the same day as their household bins are collected will make sure the areas remain clean.
An improved trade waste service will encourage businesses to dispose of their waste effectively and efficiently.
Enterprise-Liverpool start collections in November 2008.
Liverpool city council's executive member for the environment, Councillor Berni Turner said: "Liverpool's waste and recycling service has been very successful so far, but we want to make more improvements to improve quality and reliability.
"This new contract allows us to continue the current service and improve important elements of it. Having bank holiday collections will make a huge difference and will eliminate any confusion people may have about the dates they need to put their rubbish out at holiday times.
"It's also important for residents that their collection day for both waste and recycling will remain the same, and unlike many other councils we are keeping weekly waste collections.
"I'm confident the changes will be extremely beneficial for the city, and the improvements to the recycling service will help us on our way to becoming one of the greenest cities in the UK."
Enterprise-Liverpool take over the contract from Veolia (formerly known as Onyx), who have held the contract since 1991. All the staff currently working for Veolia (around 300) will be transferred to the new contractor, with no job losses.
Assistant Executive Director for the Chief Executive's Office, Ben Dolan, said: "We would like to thank Veolia for their contribution over the past 16 years. Choosing an organisation to run the waste service has been carried out with care following a full procurement exercise.
"Enterprise-Liverpool will implement many new initiatives to improve the range and quality of service we currently provide, and at the same time they offer the best value for money
"We look forward to working with Enterprise-Liverpool to make sure together we will see the service become even more successful over the forthcoming years and one which the residents of Liverpool will value."
During the evaluation process, key elements had to be met which included company financial standing, technical experience and references, operational delivery and service improvement.
Every year:
18,000,000 kerbside recycling and waste collections take place
194,000 tonnes of household waste is collected
1,200 trade/commercial premises are served
Liverpool's current recycling rate stands at 22 per cent, exceeding the government set target of 20 per cent.
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