What’s going on at SWP?

Staffordshire Waste Partnership has progressed significantly in the last few years – originally an informal agreement between the councils in Staffordshire to work together on waste issues, the Partnership has developed into a more formal recognition of collaboration. Communication Officers for SWP advanced joint messages between the councils, to develop singular messages on key issues. In June 2013, a dedicated Partnership Officer role was created to push the collaboration via large scale projects, in order to generate efficiencies and cost savings, as well as improving services for the public.

Recent projects have included

• The refresh of the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (hyperlink to Strategy page) for 2013, which refines the direction the councils will be taking in the coming years,
• Several councils have adapted their clinical waste services due to new legislative criteria which means that some types of waste formerly classified as clinical waste can now be disposed on in the normal residual waste bin,
• Eight of the ten councils are also currently procuring for a new contract for a company to process the dry recycling collected as part of the kerbside collection services – by jointly procuring the service together, procurement costs (including Officer time on the project) have been greatly reduced, and offer the potential to secure a more advantageous contract. In addition, trade waste collections are being reviewed for operational efficiencies to improve and expand the services.

Upcoming projects include reviews of bulky waste collection services, to offer a more user friendly service that is more likely to result in reusing items rather than having to dispose of them (thus cutting our disposal costs), and the joint procurement of new fleet vehicles for several councils, to achieve economies of scale.