Purpose

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.
 

Content

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.