Consortia bids

East Midlands Waste Consortium

The East Midlands Waste Consortium was set up in 1998. Its members are environmental officers, purchasing managers, estates staff and others from the University of Leicester, Loughborough University, The Nottingham Trent University, the University of Nottingham, the University of Derby, Leicester South Fields College and Loughborough College. The aim of the group was to produce a tender document to give members greater purchasing power over the waste companies.

There was general dissatisfaction with the performance of waste management companies. They were unable to give tonnage details; prices were all-inclusive covering transport, tonnage, lift and landfill tax, and did not take into account the actual amount of waste being collected. The consortium wanted to change to a system of charging by weight, not by lift, which it was felt would reduce costs as well as provide the annual tonnage figures required by members.

Meetings were held with each waste contractor to establish if the consortium’s ideas were valid. Work then began on drafting the tender. This included the requirement to pay by weight, not lift, the ability to recycle, to livery bins and skips, to provide a call-out service within 4-6 hours, and to provide annual tonnage figures. The contractor was required to attend regular partnership meetings (once under contract) and provide a high quality service. The returned tender was required to be in a spreadsheet format to encourage the price breakdown the consortium wanted. After a year’s work, the tender document was placed in the EU Journal in January 1999. Pre-tender questionnaires were insisted upon to prevent unsuitable applications.

Awarding the contract was the most difficult part of the process. Originally the plan was to agree on one contractor. However, this became difficult as some waste companies charged according to the various geographical locations of institutions, one company was much cheaper, and only one company could charge by weight, although another agreed to do so if awarded the contract. Eventually institutions made their own decisions, although four chose the same company.

Was this a success? From the University of Derby’s point of view it has been. The contractor now charges by weight, not lift, and provides regular tonnage information and a quality service. The bins have been identi-chipped thus providing details of tonnage, the site of the bin, how often it is emptied and the type of waste it contains. The year spent working with the consortium was useful, as we were trying out a new idea.

If this process was to be repeated we would make the tender less complex, spending more time on synchronising the format for the return of information. I have no doubt that, in future, all waste management companies will need to charge by weight, not lift; customers will demand this to enable them to monitor their waste production, particularly as landfill tax rises. An important point to remember is that companies who tender can only respond to the figures you present for your institution. Therefore it is useful to perform a waste review before embarking on this process. It will help in the long run and provide you with a benchmark to compare future performance.

An update and copy of the tender document can be obtained at(www.heepi.org.uk/documents/cases/HEEPI%20case%201%20-%20derby%20approved.doc)

Contact J.E.Hasbury@derby.ac.uk

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Consortia bids

East Midlands Waste Consortium

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