Veolia and Northampton Borough Council partner up to clean up the local environment and boost recycling rates

Ten year environmental services contract awarded by Northampton Borough Council

man sweeping the streets

The UK’s leading resource management company, Veolia, through its subsidiary Veolia ES (UK) Limited has been awarded a ten year environmental services contract by Northampton Borough Council. Worth around £130 million, the contract covers recycling and waste collections, street cleansing and grounds, allotments and cemeteries maintenance services to help the Council meet its environmental objectives. Set to commence in June 2018, Veolia will work in partnership with the Council on a series of initiatives to keep the streets and parks clean, and improving recycling rates.

A key part of the new service is a programme to help increase recycling rates whilst reducing black bag waste, and tackle littering including gum and cigarette butt disposal. The new engagement scheme will deliver targeted education campaigns to address these challenges in partnership with the Council and Veolia’s ground maintenance partner, IdVerde.

To improve collection efficiency Veolia will be introducing its municipal smart technology known as ‘ECHO’ which tracks vehicles, confirms tasks, changes routes and adds collections into the system in real-time, enabling the delivery of a tailored service that can react to day-to- day occurrences across all services.

Commenting on the contract, Estelle Brachlianoff, Senior Executive Vice President, Veolia UK and Ireland said: “We are very pleased to have been given the opportunity to improve the local environment for the communities in Northampton. Our teams are committed to providing an effective service and will help improve the local environment and increase recycling rates across the Borough enabling it to better realise the value of its recycling as a valuable commodity.”

Northampton Borough Council’s Cabinet member for environment, Cllr Mike Hallam, added: “Veolia is offering services at a level people deserve and our residents made it clear that the new environmental services provision needed to be of excellent quality. The changes outlined in the winning bid demonstrate an understanding of the complex issues we’ve faced during the past decade and offer practical solutions.”

The new services include responsibility for recycling food and green waste, with dry mixed recycling going to local materials recovery facilities, improved reuse of bulky items and kerbside collections of small electrical items. New wheeled bins for recycling, will be issued to all properties that currently have wheeled bins. The new bin will replace the boxes that are currently used, enabling residents to store their recycling in one container, eliminating the need to separate the different materials. The use of a wheeled bin will also eliminate the issue caused by materials being blown out of recycling boxes by the wind.

Estelle Brachlianoff, Senior Executive Vice President, Veolia UK and Ireland
We are very pleased to have been given the opportunity to improve the local environment for the communities in Northampton.

Street cleansing will focus on improving standards across the Borough and the grounds maintenance service will deal with all areas of public open space, with particular attention on Northampton’s premier park in Abington.

As part of the service Veolia is investing in its people with a Professional Development Programme to help staff develop new skills and foster a new working culture. New employment opportunities will also be created by employing apprentices and working with Blue Sky to provide placements for ex- offenders.