The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) wrote to Local Authorities last month advising of the indicative capital funding amounts allocated. The purpose of this funding is to assist with the transitions to weekly collections of food waste from all households in England.
The deadline for Local Authorities to have this in place is 31st March 2026.
The first release of funding is due to Local Authorities by 31st March 2024 and is to cover the capital costs of the vehicles and containers that will be required to enable weekly collections of food waste.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) have been engaging with YPO, along with other Public Sector Buying Organisations, suppliers and manufacturers, to prepare for this change.
From one of our latest sessions with WRAP, we learned that there are 272 Local Authorities in England that are still to transition to weekly food waste collections. It has been estimated that over 1,500 collection vehicles will be required, over 11,500,000 kitchen caddies and 10,500,000 kerbside caddies and around 190,000 wheeled bins for communal residences.
This tight deadline does bring great challenges to Local Authorities. The lead time for some food waste vehicles is already circa 12-18 months or longer. Local Authorities are already ordering their containers which highlights another challenge of the storage of these containers prior to distribution.
Other considerations for Local Authorities are how to procure, for example by their own open tender or via a Public Sector Buying Organisation such as YPO, and how all of this fits into their own/internal purchasing rules. There is also the factor of whether to supply each household with caddy liners as part of the service which may be preferred by residents in order for them to keep their internal kitchen caddy and external container clean and hygienic and transfer from one to the other securely. Another matter is how all of the containers (and liners) will be delivered to each individual household.
What we can be certain of is that demand of vehicles and containers is expected to exceed the available supply! There will be a bottleneck in production and a backlog to supply and deliver.
Our advice to our Local Authority customers is to procure items as soon as possible in order to secure the best price at the delivery time that you prefer or require. As demand increases, customers will inevitably have less flexibility over cost and delivery times.
YPO can assist with your purchasing requirements offering guidance along the way, ensuring a quicker, smoother process and taking the pressure off in terms of your purchasing requirements.
A reminder of the framework agreements that we have available to meet your food waste purchasing requirements is listed below, along with the link to the Local Authority guidance document issued by WRAP;
- Compostable Liners – 1013
- The supply of liners for your kitchen caddies and bins
- Plastic Wheeled Bins including Distribution Services – 1040
- The supply of larger bins that may be required for communal properties.
- The distribution of any waste products to individual households
- Alternative Fuelled Vehicles – 1066
- Recycling Products – 1063
- The supply of kitchen and kerbside caddies for your food waste
- Specialist Vehicles - 960
Access the guidance via the link here 👉 Weekly food waste implementation – supplementary procurement guidance | WRAP.
Please contact us for a no-obligation chat/further information via the below;
- Food Waste Management | YPO
- Fleet Team – fleet@ypo.co.uk
- Facilities and Waste Management (waste products) – facilitiesmanagement@ypo.co.uk
