Purpose

The Environment Act 2021 requires all local
authorities to implement weekly collections of food waste from all
households by 1st April 2026.
 
This report seeks approval for the release of
capital funding grant received from DEFRA in 2024. The grant has
been awarded to the Council to fund capital elements of the
mandated Food Waste Service. Recommendations in this report detail
the level of service and associated costs to deliver the food waste
service with options of gold, silver or bronze to be chosen.
 
Further, this decision report seeks approval
to procure the items required to deliver this service, delegating
authority for the approval to award the contracts to the Corporate
Director of Environment and Sustainable Transport, in consultation
with the Cabinet member for Environment, Sustainable Transport,
Children Services and Education.

Decision

Decision
 
For the reasons set out in the report and its
appendices Cabinet RESOLVED to Agree to:
 

i) 
Agree the release of capital funding grant of £2.07m received
from DEFRA in 2024 to be used for the delivery of a Weekly Food
Waste Service.

ii) 
Accept the grant of £642k from DEFRA to cover the
transitional revenue costs including project management, container
delivery, communication and costs to procure items required.

iii) 
Approve the procurement of DEFRA funded items only of internal and
external caddies and basic communal food waste bins with aperture
opening at an estimated cost of £907,732 including a
tolerance of 10%, not exceeding £998,800 to be procured
through a procurement framework directly.

iv) 
Delegate authority to the Corporate Director of Environment and
Sustainable Transport, in consultation with the Cabinet member for
Environment, Sustainable Transport, Children Services and Education
to finalise the details and commence the procurement of the goods
to deliver the service under 2.3 above; and award the necessary
contracts and agreements.

v) 
Note that once the additional revenue funding is received in
Spring/Summer 2025 a further update will be provided to
Cabinet.
 
Alternatives
Considered
 

a) 
Do nothing. Do not allow release of funding received from Central
Government to procure the food waste bins and caddies; this will
have an impact on complying with the Environment Act 2021 and
penalties and or further enforcement action may be undertaken by
central government. Further there is a risk of reputational damage
including and not limited to failing to meet the Councils own local
targets and national climate emergency targets.

b) 
Delay the decision. As Newham are yet to be notified of their
revenue costs, delaying the future decision of the food waste
service has been considered. This has been discounted as a delay
would impact the delivery timelines and potentially the costs due
to the supply and demand of these items. A large proportion of
Local Authorities will be looking to procure all food waste service
items over the coming months, prices are likely to increase and
demand may outstrip supply, which may result in no residential food
waste service being possible by 1 st April 2026.

c) 
Purchase items for the service level: Silver The Silver options
includes internal and external caddies, basic communal food waste
bins and a limited number of food housing units and a reduced
number of caddy liners with a roll of 10 for a 3-5 week period.
Providing both of these additional items will increase
participation. This has been discounted due to available
funding.

d) 
Purchase items for the service level: Gold The ‘Gold’
option would ensure that residents have an adequate number of caddy
liners for 3-6 months and all blocks that have the space for one,
have access to a communal food waste bins with bin housings which
will include a pedal. The greater the number residents that
participate in the service the more food waste will be removed from
the residual waste stream. If waste is removed from the residual
waste stream, then a saving will be generated through the new ELWA
contract, recycling waste including food waste, will cost less than
residual waste. Purchasing items at the ‘Gold’ level
removes as many barriers as possible to ensure a greater level of
resident participation. This has been discounted due to available
funding.

e) 
Alternative procurement routes have been explored. The Council has
explored options in consultation with Newham’s Procurement
Lead and WRAP to understand if joint procurement with the other
East London Waste Authority Boroughs would be advantageous for one
or more of the items required to deliver a food waste service
either through shared resources or a reduction in cost. The usual
procurement route would be direct procurement through one of the
procurement frameworks such as ESPO or YPO. These provide a
reliable, fixed cost solution that Newham have successfully used in
the past to deliver Public Realm requirements. The option to
jointly procure has been discounted as there would be no benefit to
the Council when compared to procuring directly via a
framework.