One of the slight frustrations with Council services is that they are usually subcontracted and that the contracts are for years at a time, making it difficult to make rapid changes. However, when the time does come, it gives the opportunity to make some drastic changes and I’m happy to report that this is exactly what’s happened with the waste collection services.
The Council has switched suppliers away from SITA to May Gurney as from November of this year. May Gurney have offered a much better deal, which is saving Bristol taxpayers around £2.5m a year. More importantly (from my perspective, at least) is that the contract also includes kerbside collection of plastic and Tetrapaks (fruit juice cartons and the like). This is something that I’ve been agitating for over the years and I’m delighted to see it arrive. The city already has one of the strongest records for plastic recycling in the country and this will push us even further up the league table. The new system will be phased in around the city – I’m not yet sure where Cotham is in the phasing.
This follows on the back of the previous good news about the opening of the mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plant that has halved landfill this year and the start of the projecvt to build a pyrolysis plant to open in a couple of years time – these will collectively mean an end to untreated landfill and give us one of the most waste efficient cities in the world.
The other good news about the May Gurney contract is that it will be performance-related, such that they will be paid extra if their staff do a good job of keeping the streets clean when they collect the waste. At the moment I get a steady stream of complaints about messiness left by the binfolk – in the future, the company will get paid more the fewer complaints that come in. The net result should be cleaner streets, especially as the road sweeping teams are now timed to come after the bin collections wherever possible.
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