The deal will run for an initial five years with the possibility of a further five year extension. It was valued at £300 million over the full ten years. Suez won the contract from Serco in January (see letsrecycle.com story).
It will see the company provide household collections of recycling, garden and food waste and residual, servicing around 119,000 households across Milton Keynes. The contractual responsibilities also include keeping streets clean and maintaining council owned green spaces and play areas.
Milton Keynes city council has delivered 300,000 new wheeled bins to its residents as part of the new service provision. The move to the wheeled bins is said to be “better for the local environment by reducing street litter, limiting capacity to increase recycling rates and improving the quality of recyclable materials”. Previously, residents had a clear recycling sack for dry recyclables, a blue box for glass and a green wheeled bin for garden and food waste, with a black bag for residual waste.
Vehicles
As part of the contract, Suez has also “welcomed and trained” an additional 250 members of staff. Additionally, an “ultra-modern” fleet of 65 refuse collection vehicles (RCVs) was deployed “to fulfil contract requirements”, the company said. It also noted that a further 64 vehicles were allocated to street cleansing, grounds maintenance and play areas.
Suez UK added that each vehicle is equipped with 360-degree cameras on board “to improve safety and record any issues”, with electric bin lifts to help cut fuel consumption and emissions. The company added that in line with reducing local carbon emissions, approximately 25% of the fleet is electric.
‘Milestone’
Commenting, Daniel Gillert, Suez UK’s regional business manager said: “Today marks a major milestone as we announce the start of a brand-new waste and environmental services contract for Milton Keynes city council. After a very comprehensive mobilisation period over the summer, which saw the arrival of new state-of-the-art vehicles and 250 new staff members at SUEZ, we’re all excited about what the future will bring for us here in Milton Keynes and we’re ready to hit the ground running.”
With an estimated population of 287,000, Milton Keynes had a recycling rate of 51.9% in the 2021/22 financial year, Defra statistics show.
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