Preparing for Waste Policy Reforms: South Gloucestershire Council’s Strategic Re-procurement for 2025

This case study shows how South Gloucestershire Council, with Local Partnerships, prepared for 2025 waste reforms by optimising waste collection, improving recycling, reducing costs, and increasing revenue.

South Gloucestershire Council is preparing for significant waste policy reforms, with a focus on the reprocurement of its waste collections contract. The upcoming contract, commencing in 2025, must consider the impacts of new policies like Simpler Recycling (SR), packaging Extended Producer Responsibility (pEPR), and the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

The Challenge:

Local Partnerships worked with South Gloucestershire to evaluate the implications of national waste policy reforms on their waste services and minimise potential impacts at a local level. With the council’s current 25-year contract (supported by Defra’s Waste Infrastructure and Delivery Programme (WIDP) through PFI credits) nearing its end, it was crucial that the reprocurement process considered the upcoming policy changes. The objective was to assess how these policies could impact waste collection, processing, and management.

The Solution

Our approach involved working closely with South Gloucestershire to assess the impacts of key waste policy reforms. Methods included:

• Data collection and analysis: we developed a proforma to gather essential data on the council’s waste services, including collection systems, processing, financials and contractual obligations. Meetings were held with the team to address any data gaps.
• Assessment of policy impacts: we analysed the impacts of five key policy reforms: SR, pEPR, DRS, mandatory Digital Waste Tracking (mDWT), and the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS). This evaluation focused on preparing South Gloucestershire to adapt its services and make the necessary changes ahead of the reforms.
• Preparation for reprocurement: we developed strategies to integrate the upcoming policy changes into the waste collections contract reprocurement process. 

The Impact:

This work has a direct impact on South Gloucestershire’s journey towards more sustainable waste collection services:

• By expanding source-segregated recycling and food waste collections to flats, South Gloucestershire will increase material recovery, diverting more waste from landfill and incineration.
• An increase in capture rate of in-scope materials by 10% would generate a £350k saving in residual waste treatment costs.
• By implementing a risk-share mechanism for dry recycling, South Gloucestershire could generate over £200k in additional revenue.
• Through considering how infrastructure and service design, including additional capture of flexible materials, can be factored into future waste collections to minimise the potential loss of revenue from implementation of DRS. 
• The preparation of ICT systems for mDWT ensures that South Gloucestershire is ready for enhanced waste monitoring, providing the data needed to drive more informed decisions on waste reduction.
• The review of the residual waste contract includes measures to divert additional materials from waste streams and optimise the calorific value, reducing carbon emissions.

Next Steps:

In order for South Gloucestershire to better prepare for the policy changes, it was recommended that the council undertakes a kerbside waste composition study, the results of which will inform targeted recycling campaigns. These campaigns will focus on diverting additional materials from residual waste, further supporting the council’s zero-waste goals.

Project Team Details:

This case study was conducted by specialist project team including:

Derek Rooney – Senior Director in the Climate business unit in Local Partnerships provided overall project management and final report outcomes. 

Shah Faisal, Assistant Director in the Climate business unit in Local Partnerships. Shah helped in modelling outcomes and review of policy reforms including pEPR, SR, mDWT and UK ETS. 

Tom Marshall, Assistant Director in the Climate business unit in Local Partnerships conducted modelling outcomes and review of policy on DRS and interrelation between all policy reforms. 

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