Market engagement on future waste management arrangements for the treatment of garden waste in accordance with the statutory duties of the East London Waste Authority (ELWA).

This Preliminary Market Engagement Notice (PMEN) is published to advertise a preliminary market engagement being conducted by the East London Waste Authority (ELWA). ELWA wishes to engage with market operators regarding a new contract opportunity for the treatment of garden waste.

ELWA is responsible for the disposal of the Local Authority Collected Waste (LACW) collected by (or on behalf of) the London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham and Redbridge (the Constituent Councils) and to arrange for places to be provided at which persons resident in its area may deposit their household waste and for the disposal of waste so deposited. ELWA is also responsible for the disposal and recycling of commercial waste collected by the Constituent Councils.

These services are currently delivered via an Integrated Waste Management Services Contract (IWMS Contract), which was entered into in December 2002 with ELWA Ltd (the IWMS Contractor) and is operated by Biffa Treatment Services (the IWMS Operator). The IWMS Contract includes infrastructure for mechanical biological treatment, waste transfer, and Reuse and Recycling Centres (RRCs) for use by the general public. The IWMS Operator also has a number of sub-contractors for services, including the provision of material recovery facilities for dry mixed recycling, treatment of garden waste, offtake of materials, transfer and RRC facilities. The IWMS Contract expires in December 2027. Further details on ELWA and the services it provides can be found at https://eastlondonwaste.gov.uk/.

In 2022 ELWA and the Constituent Councils produced a Joint Strategy for East London's Resources and Waste (Joint Strategy) for the period from 2027 to 2057. Further details on the Joint Strategy can be found at https://eastlondonwaste.gov.uk/jointstrategy/.

Following the ratification of the Joint Strategy, also in 2022, ELWA set up the Procurement and Contract Expiry Programme (PACE Programme) to manage the complex work associated with:

The Outline Business Case (OBC), part of the Future Services Delivery component of the PACE Programme, was then produced to determine the preferred service delivery model for the new services at the expiry of the IWMS Contract.

The OBC concluded that the preferred approach to procuring the services to replace the IWMS Contract would be via a disaggregated service delivery model with new contracts for the following waste services: Residual Waste Disposal; Waste Reception, Haulage and Reuse and Recycling Centres; Treatment of Garden Waste; Reprocessing of Dry Recycling; and Treatment of Food Waste.

The OBC was formally approved in September 2023. Agenda-Item-04 September 2023.pdf (eastlondonwaste.gov.uk).

To inform the development of these contracts, ELWA has been carrying out market engagement exercises.

The procurement for the Residual Waste Contract has recently been completed, and the procurement of the Reception, Haulage, Reuse and Recycling Centres Contract (RHRRC Contract) is currently underway.

ELWA is now seeking to engage with market operators who may wish to participate in the procurement of the Garden Waste Contract (GWC).

ELWA has also published a Market Operator Briefing Note on the Bravo Portal (https://lbbd.bravosolution.co.uk/), alongside this PMEN, which provides further information regarding this preliminary market engagement exercise, including the process that market operators need to follow to participate in this exercise and the questionnaire that market operators need to complete.