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With more than 1500 tonnes of rubbish being sorted for recycling every year in Guernsey, new contractors are needed to help manage the systems.
Guernsey Waste said several existing contracts are up for renewal at the same time, prompting them to take action now.
At this stage, Expressions of Interest are wanted, before the formal tender process opens later in the year.
Guernsey Waste Contracts and Compliance Manager, Rachel Lowe, said the contracts for processing materials are all regularly reviewed and re-tendered.
“We want to ensure that the contracts we have in place for all the different items that households can bring to the HWRC represent best value for the island," she said.
“On this occasion we had several contracts due for renewal around the same time. We have therefore opted to invite expressions of interest for all of them together. The responses that we get will help us decide how we eventually tender them, to get best value. It could be by combining some, or keeping them separate.”
Processors are needed for managing the recycling of a wide range of different household materials – from scrap metal and domestic appliances to CDs and light bulbs, Mrs Lowe explained.
Teams are needed to carry out the collection, on-island sorting, and procession of these materials prior to their shipping, transport, and reprocessing off-island.
It is expected that all the materials will be exported for reprocessing, but local operators may be involved in the on-island logistics and export, Mrs Lowe said.
“The actual reprocessing element, where they take an item and turn it back into raw material or some other product, is usually done at a much bigger scale than we have in Guernsey."
The list of materials that need processing locally includes car and household batteries, electrical equipment, fridges and cooling units, scrap metal, TVs, and monitors.
Other smaller items are printer cartridges, light bulbs, CDs and DVDs, scrap metal, and disposable vapes.
Mrs Lowe said that altogether, these materials can account for more than 1500 tonnes of items are recycled by local households each year.
Potential contractors have until 25 June to register their interest, by completing a standard questionnaire.
They'll then be able to bid to provide an individual element of the process, such as export, or to manage every stage from collection to recycling. They may also offer to handle just one material stream, or multiple.
Guernsey Waste will review the submissions before deciding on how individual contracts or packages of contracts will be tendered later this year.
Subject to any further negotiation, all new contracts are expected to commence in January 2025.
Pictured top: File image.
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