Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Regeneration and Environment.

Recommendations: 

That Cabinet:

1.    Approve the procurement of a contractor for the provision of containers, collection, and disposal of food waste, with consideration given to working in partnership with neighbouring authorities.

2.    Delegate authority to the Assistant Director of Community Safety and Street Scene in conjunction with the relevant Cabinet member and with the S151 Finance Officer to set fees, charges and vary prices.

Consideration was given to the report which provided an update on the Business Waste Service. This included an update on legislative changes, which would require the Council to consider the implementation of food waste collection options for Business Customers, alongside a range of options as to how the Council could achieve this. The report also detailed the current and future scheme of delegation for setting the prices for the service.

For the Business Waste Service in Rotherham to compete with the private sector, the service had to provide their customers with advice on waste minimisation and offer a collection of paper, card, plastics, metals, glass and food waste (for companies with more than 10 employees) by 31 March 2025. The introduction of recycling to a service required engagement and communication to ensure that the material is of good quality to maximise the income generated.

It was recommended that a contractor be procured to deliver this service. The current Council business waste service had conducted analysis with all its current customers and only 18% of the customers would have to contract a food business waste service, since the legislation was specific to businesses that had 10 or more employees. If the Council had to collect its own food waste from just 18% of its customers, a disproportionate amount of investment in both revenue and capital would be required. This was set out in  option 4 as detailed in the report. This would include a specialist vehicle, which would only be utilised for food waste collections and, with the limited demand that was expected, would have significant periods of time where it was not in use. Similarly, a driver and loader would also be required in addition to the existing workforce which again would not be fully utilised solely via the collection of food waste for businesses, along with purchasing new receptacles to collect the food waste. A new procurement exercise would also have to be performed for food waste disposal which would add cost and logistical issues as there were no recycling centres for food waste treatment in the borough.

With this taken into consideration, the pricing model would have had to be changed across the other business waste streams to balance out the cost of a food waste collection service, due to so few anticipated customers, and factoring in the required revenue and capital investments. If the costs were distributed for food waste collection and disposal across the other business waste streams, there was a significant concern that the Council could lose customers due to price increases and would no longer be competitive within the marketplace.

Given the time frame for implementation, and the uncertainty of tonnages that would be collected, it was recommended to procure a provider for a short-term contract of 3 years, plus a potential 2-year extension, to allow gathering of data to better inform the scoping of the business food waste collection service. This would then allow the service to produce a report for Cabinet to consider next steps and potentially alternative delivery models.

A key area of decision-making in the Business Waste Service was the setting of fees and charges, making variations to fees and charges, allowing discount

offers to be introduced and negotiating individual contracts (within a certain percentage of set fees). This allowed the service to remain competitive within its long-term goal of financial stability. The proposed fees and charges were set out in Exempt Appendix 1. The report sought delegated authority to the Assistant Director of Community Safety and Street Scene in conjunction with the relevant Cabinet member and with the S151 Finance Officer to set fees, charges and vary prices. Any variation to the prices offered to customers had to be in line with the price ranges formally agreed and deviation from the norm would require approval by the Head of Environmental Services.

Resolved:

That Cabinet:

1.    Approve the procurement of a contractor for the provision of containers, collection, and disposal of food waste, with consideration given to working in partnership with neighbouring authorities.

2.    Delegate authority to the Assistant Director of Community Safety and Street Scene in conjunction with the relevant Cabinet member and with the S151 Finance Officer to set fees, charges and vary prices.