Biffa signs five year contract with Enfield council

The continuation contract, which also has the option of a three year extension, will see the borough’s dry mixed recyclables collected by the council before being processed at Biffa’s flagship Edmonton materials recycling facility (MRF), which processes nearly 10% of north London’s waste.

Organic food and garden waste, meanwhile, will be bulked at Edmonton but processed at the company’s Ufton composting unit.

Enfield council currently runs its weekly collections of wheeled bins in-house, with a blue lidded bin for dry commingled recyclables, a green lidded bin for garden and food waste and a grey lidded bin for general waste. Estates are provided with shared bins for recycling, food waste and general waste.

The deal follows Biffa’s recent investment of £3.1 million in glass cleaning technology across its two ‘super MRFs’ in Edmonton and Aldridge in the West Midlands, with the aim of boosting material quality and “reducing risk” from the volatile glass market (see letsrecycle.com story).

Enfield

Biffa is aiming to continue boosting the council’s recycling rates, which currently sits as the borough with one of the highest recycling rates year on year in London. Enfield’s recycling rate for 2014-15 was 39%.

Around 23,000 tonnes of paper, card, cans, plastics and glass is collected in Enfield each year, along with 20,000 tonnes of organic waste.

Steve Oulds, Biffa’s national commercial manager, said: “Retendering and retaining the contract for Enfield is a proud achievement for our team. We are truly delighted to be continuing our work with Enfield council and are dedicated to supporting them to further increase recycling rates across the borough.”

Household recycling from the London borough of Epping is also processed at the Edmonton MRF, after Biffa last year secured a 10-year, £50 million contract to provide waste, recycling and street cleansing services on behalf of the council (see letsrecycle.com story).

Mr Oulds added: “We work with a number of London boroughs and this is familiar territory to us. We’re confident that we can continue to make a real difference in Enfield.”