Yorwaste Q & A - Hambleton District Council

IntroductionYorwaste has entered into a new contract to collect, process and sell recyclablematerial on behalf of councils in Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate and Richmondshire.The contract was procured in behalf of the authorities by the York and NorthYorkshire Waste Partnership.The following Question & Answer (Q&A) sheet is designed to give you an overviewof this contractQ1. Who are Yorwaste?Yorwaste is a private recycling and waste management company with operationsbased across Yorkshire, providing recycling and waste services to local businesses,householders and local councils. We are owned by, but run independently from,North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council.Employing 241 staff, Yorwaste specialises in creating environmentally sound wastemanagement and recycling solutions for its customers across the UK. We see wasteas a resource that, wherever possible, needs to be recovered and re-used and tothis end we invest continually in the latest state-of-the-art technologies to facilitatethis recovery.Q2. What is the York & North Yorkshire Waste Partnership?The York and North Yorkshire Waste Partnership (also known as YNYWP) was firstformed in 1998 and brings together the nine councils in the area: North YorkshireCounty Council, City of York Council, Craven District Council, Hambleton DistrictCouncil, Harrogate Borough Council, Richmondshire District Council, RyedaleDistrict Council, Scarborough Borough Council and Selby District Council.The Partnership manages municipal waste (that is all waste under the control of alocal authority) by carrying out collections from homes and by providing householdwaste recycling centres, which are run by North Yorkshire County Council. Theultimate objective of the Partnership is to increase the levels of reuse, recycling andcomposting and reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfill.Q3. What is the new contract about?Four members of the York & North Yorkshire Waste Partnership – Craven DistrictCouncil, Hambleton District Council, Harrogate Borough Council and RichmondshireDistrict Council - were jointly seeking to appoint a contractor to collect, process andsell the recyclable material the councils collect from your homes. In relation toHambleton and Harrogate this also includes bring banks, which you normally seesituated near supermarkets. Yorwaste was awarded a three-year contract to providethis service for these councils following a competitive tendering process.

Q4. When did the contract start?Yorwaste began providing this service in Hambleton and Richmondshire in January2012 and in Craven and Harrogate in April 2012.Q5. What is the aim of the contract?The main aim of the contract is to increase the amount of household waste sent forrecycling and maximise the value of this waste. By increasing recycling, more wastewill be diverted from landfill, which has major environmental and cost savingbenefits.Q6. How does the contract work?Recyclable materials such as cans, plastic bottles, paper, card, cardboard and glassare collected and taken to Yorwaste recycling facilities in York and Catterick wherethey are sorted and baled. The materials are then sold, through re-processers,ensuring that, where possible, there will be a UK-based outlet for all materials arisingfrom this contract.Q8. Does this just relate to household waste?Predominantly yes, but Yorwaste will also be collecting recycling that is left in bringbanks in the Hambleton and Harrogate council areas.Q9. How much waste will be collected and processed?In total, across the four local authority areas, Yorwaste will receive around 27,000tonnes of material per year.Q10. How much money will the councils receive as part of the contract?Whilst recycling markets are subject to change Yorwaste has guaranteed a price forthe material and it is estimated over the course of the contract will bring income ofover £3 million to the four authorities.Q11. Are there plans to add more materials to the collections?As part of the contract Yorwaste has pledged to investigate the collection of otherwaste streams, such as cardboard and different varieties of plastic containers, e.g.yoghurt pots, which do not currently form part of kerbside collections.Q12. Why can’t other plastics be collected as part of this contract?There is currently no viable market in the UK for the plastic types which make upitems such as yoghurt pots and food trays. There are about 50 different types ofplastic, the most common and easily recycled being plastic bottles, so at present we

are concentrating on collecting as many of these as possible. In the near future it ishoped the UK will have comprehensive infrastructure for the collection, sorting andreprocessing of other types of plastic, such as trays, tubs and films, and when thoshappens we will look further at other waste streams like this.Q13. Why is cardboard not collected from kerbsides in Hambleton andRichmondshire?At present Hambleton and Richmondshire councils do not have the capacity tocollect cardboard due to vehicle restrictions and resourcing requirements. Optionsare being considered by these authorities for extending the range of recycledmaterials collected at the kerbside.Q14. Will other waste, such as food waste, ever be included as part of thiscontract?At present there are no plans to collect food waste from kerbsides in the four councilareas. As a country we are moving towards making it easier for people to recycleother waste streams and further reducing the amount of unnecessary waste thatgoes to landfill, so this could change in the future but it would be up to eachindividual authority to decide whether collection services are viable.