Issue details

The reasons for the decision are:

Mixed biowaste (garden and food waste) collections form an important part of the recycling services provided by the authorities across Greater Manchester. The material collected is delivered to GMCA facilities for bulking up before being treated at contracted merchant facilities that use In-Vessel Composting technology (IVC). In order to meet regulatory requirements, mixed garden and food waste must be treated using this form of technology.

The biowaste collected at the kerbside is delivered by the districts to our network of biowaste transfer loading stations and distributed to merchant treatment facilities through two different contractual routes:
• Around 80,000 tonnes is managed by Suez through the Waste and Resources Management Services (WRMS) contract until 2034; and
• A framework of contractors is in place and through call-off arrangements two ‘packages’ of biowaste quantities are composted - an annual ‘baseline’ of around 100,000 tonnes and a seasonal amount of c.38,000 tonnes. The current Framework and call off contracts will expire in May 2026. It is therefore essential that GMCA sources IVC treatment capacity post 2026 as failure to do so will mean this material will need to be disposed of via landfill or energy from waste treatment at a significant additional cost and impact on the GM recycling rate.

The 6 organisations that have responded to the Framework procurement all met the requirement to provide indicative treatment capacity and a maximum gate fee. Following appointment to the Framework they will be invited to respond to the call off contracts and to bid for packages of treatment capacity up to the maximum annual requirement of GMCA.