Refuse and waste related services

Description

Somerset Waste Partnership, through its administering Authority (Somerset County Council) sought a service provider to carry out the collection of recycling and residual waste for the County of Somerset. The contract includes the collection from households of: dry recycling materials and food waste; garden waste; residual waste; bulky items and clinical waste. The contract includes a phased transition to a service model involving the collection of an enhanced range of recyclable materials, and 3-weekly collection of residual waste. The contract will help drive reduced residual waste and increased recycling and implement improvements to service quality, support behavioural change and deliver social value. The procurement was conducted using the competitive dialogue procedure in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. economic operators were required to complete a selection stage followed by an Invitation to Submit Detailed Solutions (ISDS) and Invitation to Submit Final Tenders (ISFT). Dialogue sessions preceded both the ISDS and ISFT stages. The initial contract length will be ten (10) years. Extensions of one-year (1) periods (or multiples of one year as determined between the parties) will be available up to a maximum of a further ten (10) years (i.e. a maximum contract duration of twenty (20) years). Over the duration of the contract it is anticipated that the contract may be adjusted or modified to account for factors including, but not limited to, property growth, policy change and the introduction of producer responsibility measures that significantly change household waste composition. There is a maximum timescale for transition to recycle more from the current service model of two (2) years from the service commencement date with the transition of specified amounts of households within specified periods of time from the second contract quarter onwards with deductions for failure to meet this requirement. The scope of the services are as follows: — collection of refuse and segregated collections of food waste and dry recyclables from separate households and households served with communal containment resources, — collection of garden waste from subscribed households, — placing dry recycling on the market and obtaining suitable reprocessors within the UK as far as possible, — collection of bulky waste from customers, — clinical waste collections, — container maintenance and delivery, — planning and mobilisation of service changes and new services, including the distribution of communications material and containers, — a dedicated liaison officer working closely with SWP on communication activities and behavioural change (see interface below), and commercial waste collections including an Incentivise work force to identify current usage of household services by entities that should have a trade account. The new service provider will be required to provide a service to customers requiring a commercial waste collection service at a reasonable price, thereby discharging the Authority’s s statutory waste collection obligations. The service provider will manage the commercial waste accounts with this commercial collection service, — a collection service for educational establishments and other schedule 1 entities to include residual collections (mostly fortnightly), dry recycling and food waste collections. Service to be priced provisionally and potentially with mid-term break clause it is anticipated benefits will accrue from close alignment, — wider service user and communication activities to facilitate behavioural change. The standard service design will transition in the first two (2) years of the new contract from the current service to the service termed “Recycle More”. The key aspects of recycle more are: — the majority of households will receive refuse collections once every 3 weeks using a 180 litre wheeled bin with a closed lid and no side waste policy thus restricting residual waste capacity to 60 litres per week, — separate weekly food waste collections will be provided, — dry recycling collections will collect all materials on a weekly basis and at least the current materials for recycling on a basis that is compliant with the WFD definition of “separate” from each other except plastics and cans which may be collected mixed with each other. Applicants should note the additional materials required as a result of service transition to the Recycle More model within the associated specification.