- Request
-
The request has been limited to five questions to remain within the statutory cost and time thresholds.
Please find the questions below.
1. Contractor Information: Please can you provide a list of all contractors or facilities used for collection, sorting, processing, and/or disposal of plastic waste, dry mixed recycling, aluminium cans and whether the fee structure includes charges based on lorry size or number of journeys. For each can you include:
a) Services provided;
b) Contract start and end dates;
c) Annual or total contract value;
d) Fee structures - whether they are fixed or variable rates, contamination charges/revenue sharing arrangements etc;
e) Performance indicators or incentives used including recycling targets, contamination thresholds and associated bonuses/penalties.
2. Waste treatment costs: Please can you provide the annual costs and revenues (2021/2022-2023/2024) related to recycling, recovery, treatment or disposal of:
a) Plastic bottles ' including an estimate of the percentage or volume of PET plastic, where available;
b) Other plastics and plastic packaging;
c) Dry mixed recycling;
d) Aluminium cans.
e) Can you provide the Gate fees per tonne or load paid during the same time period.
3. Contamination and Waste Treatment Outcomes: Please can you provide annual contamination rates (gross tonnage and percentage) for plastic bottles, other plastics, dry mixed recycling, and aluminium cans between 2021/22 and 2023/2024 by contractor/facility. If tonnages are estimated rather than measured, please indicate the method of estimation.
Please could you also provide the total annual amount (gross and %) of:
a) Plastic waste recycled vs. incinerated;
b) Aluminium waste recycled vs. incinerated;
c) All council-collected waste recycled vs. incinerated.
4. Kerbside and Non Kerbside collections: Please describe your role in kerbside and non-kerbside waste and recycling collections.
For kerbside collections, please include:
a) Whether materials (e.g. plastics, aluminium) are collected separately or co-mingled
b) Frequency and method of collection;
c) Any recent or planned changes in response to DRS or EPR;
d) If on-the-go (public space) bins are part of the system, please include them and identify them separately.
For non-kerbside collections (e.g. street bins or bins in public buildings), include:
e) Whether separate contracts exist;
f) Materials collected, including plastic and aluminium;
g) Volumes (2021/2022 - 2023/2024), with percentages and volumes for plastics and aluminium;
h) Contract terms and fees structures with contractors.
If tonnages are estimated, please state the method used.
5. DRS and EPR Preparations: Please can you provide details of any work undertaken in preparation for the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) and the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). This may include infrastructure investments, installation of reverse vending machines, operational changes, pilot projects, modelling, or public engagement activities.
- Decision
-
1.
e.Details of all our recycling contracts can be found in the Contracts Finder - the links to the award notices are listed below.
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/6d4a011d-62ea-4a48-b12e-efb2e1f9fb5f
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/efabbb17-ece7-4968-a00a-2b86533a9781
3.
a. The composition of material sent to the EFW is not broken down by material type.
b. The composition of material sent to the EFW is not broken down by material type.
c.
All council-collected waste recycled vs. incinerated between 2021/22 and 2023/2024 (taken from Waste Data Flow Performance Indicators)
Year (April to March)
2021/2022
2022/2023
2023/2024
Dry recycling rate
19.49%
19.41%
17.94%
Composting rate
20.42%
19.05%
21.44%
Energy recovery rate (incineration)
55.67%
57.94%
59.67%
Landfill rate
3.98%
3.24%
0.43%
4. Lincolnshire County Council is a disposal authority not a collection authority, therefore we have no role in the collection of materials.
5. No substantive work has been implemented at this time in respect of DRS. With regards to EPR, the only changes implemented have been the establishment of internal sampling of incoming recycling waste to enable the authority to be compliant with establishing compositional sample data at first point of consolidation.
- Reference number
- 12364497
- Date request received
- 8 May 2025
- Date of decision
- 6 June 2025