This page will keep you updated on the progress of the waste contracts procurement for municipal (public) waste. One contract split into two lots (sections) is currently being procured:
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Lot 2 – Organic waste (garden waste, fruit and vegetables from your brown bin).
The Invitation to Submit Detailed Solution (ISDS) submission deadline was 1 March 2010. Council officers and consultants evaluate the submissions. At least two people evaluate each section to ensure fairness.
This should leave at least two bidders from Lot 1 and two bidders from Lot 2 to go to the next stage, Final Tender. Len Foster, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood, Environmental and Communities will approve the evaluation outcome. Following the normal democratic process, his decision should be approved by 12 April. We can then report the successful bidders for the Invitation to Submit Final Tender (ISFT) stage.
During the Invitation to Submit Detailed Solution (ISDS) stage, we worked with bidders to develop their solution in detail on:
The bidders in this ISDS stage are:
Lot 1 – residual waste
North Lincs Green Energy
Orchid Environmental Ltd
Sterecycle Ltd
Waste Recycling Group Ltd
Lot 2 – organic waste
County Mulch Ltd
Shanks Waste Management Ltd
Sterecycle Ltd
Waste Recycling Group Ltd
The ISDS stage is for developing the bids so we can invite at least two bidders to the next stage (final tender). We will continue talking to bidders until we are confident this is possible. The final tender stage is where the remaining bidders offer us their best price.
At the Invitation to Submit Outline Solution (ISOS) stage, we had dialogue (talks) with our ten bidders to develop their bid. We reviewed the bids and the Project Board approved the bidders to progress to the Invitation to Submit Detail Solution (ISDS) stage on 28 October 2009. The ten bidders in the ISOS stage were:
Lot 1 – residual waste
Covanta Energy
North Lincs Green Energy
Orchid Environmental Ltd
Sterecycle Ltd
Waste Recycling Group Ltd
Lot 2 – organic waste
County Mulch Ltd
North Lincs Green Energy
Orchid Environmental Ltd
Shanks Waste Management Ltd
Sterecycle Ltd
TEG Ltd
Waste Recycling Group Ltd
The council and the bidders use consultants to assist through the processes. We do not charge bidders to bid for the contract. The competitive dialogue procedure is time consuming and costly for us and for bidders, but it is the best way to deal with a complicated issue like waste treatment. There are many different solutions and each treats the waste in a different way, producing different products and outputs with different levels of landfill. We need to be sure we achieve the best solution for our budget, the communities of North Lincolnshire, and the environment.
We had to choose which process to use to procure the new contract, (restricted procedure or competitive dialogue). We chose competitive dialogue. With the restricted procedure, we would have to know in detail exactly what we wanted. These are brief overviews of the two options:
Competitive dialogue
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Bidders pre-qualify
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Bidders enter into dialogue (talks) with the council to discuss how they can achieve our objectives
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Bids are developed through outline and then detailed stages (with de-selections at the end of each stage)
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Once we have two suitable bids, they tender competitively and the winning tender is awarded the contract.
Restricted procedure
Over 50 organisations from the UK and EU got in touch after seeing the contract advert from March 2009. We asked the organisations to complete a pre-qualification questionnaire; we received 15 responses. We invited 13 organisations to the next stage ‘Invitation to Submit Outline Solution’ (ISOS). The questionnaire shows the organisations’ ability to deliver a contract of this type.
Currently around 50,000 tonnes of residual waste (from resident’s green or grey wheelie bins and the household recycling centres) is land filled. The new contract will treat this waste in a different way. The cost of landfill tax is rising in the years to come and we must act. The 20,000 tonnes of organic waste (garden waste, fruit and vegetables from your brown bin) we collect is composted in the open air. Although composting is useful and avoids landfill, there are other ways of dealing with the waste, which may be beneficial to us.
We created a Project Board in 2008; this is a group of councillors and officers to oversee the process. They set the strategy and monitor the progress, making key decisions at appropriate stages.
The council began this procurement in summer 2008. As the value is so large, £200-300 million over 25 years, we are, by law following EU procurement regulations. This ensures fair and even access for potential bidders in the EU. The regulations state rules we must follow; where we advertise the contract, how long we give bidders to respond, and how to manage the process.