Hertfordshire County Council is considering a request From waste management company Amey to end its Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC) contract early.
Amey runs 17 HWRCs for the council. The eight and a half year contract is due to run to March 2023, but Amey has now requested an early end, the council says.
Since the contract was signed in 2014, changes in the commercial recycling markets mean that the contract has for a while not been financially viable for Amey, limiting their ability to deliver improvements that would increase recycling rates, according to the council.
Simon Aries, Assistant Director for Transport, Waste and Environmental Management, said: “Amey have done a good job managing our recycling centres since 2014, but we’ve known for some time that whilst the contract is working well and they have honoured the terms of our agreement, they are losing substantial amounts of money.
We’ve got a range of options to explore such as finding another commercial contractor, setting up our own company to manage the sites, or directly managing them from within the county council
“Amey have asked us if we can end the contract early and, on the condition that we can negotiate suitable exit terms, we’ve agreed to consider that. We are also looking in detail at the best options for managing our network of recycling centres in the future.”
The council says it is planning “significant investments” in the network of HMRCs, such as the new site at Ware, and further development to accommodate planned growth across Hertfordshire.
“We’ve got a range of options to explore such as finding another commercial contractor, setting up our own company to manage the sites, or directly managing them from within the county council,” Simon Aries.
“We’re now looking in detail at the options for managing the recycling centres and the results of this work will be reported back to our cabinet in February 2020.”