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Waste collection and street cleansing

IMG_20170321_173738365The South London Waste Partnership has a track record of delivering high quality, environmentally and financially sustainable solutions to its partner boroughs.  And with the boroughs struggling to balance their books in the face of unrelenting downward pressure on local government finances, the savings delivered through the various Partnership contracts has proved invaluable.

So it was no surprise when, in 2014, the boroughs once again turned to the South London Waste Partnership to explore whether there were savings to be made by delivering wider environmental services – including waste collections and street cleansing – in a more harmonised, joined-up way.

Following a robust procurement process, in March 2017 the Partnership awarded a major contract to Veolia, covering:

The eight-year contract (with options to extend for up to a further 16 years) will eventually see one million residents across south London receive a range of harmonised environmental services.  

The roll-out of the new services is being phased over a two-year period.  Sutton was the first borough to go live with a new ‘twin-stream’ recycling and rubbish collection service (including separate food waste) in April 2017.  Merton and Croydon will follow in 2018 and Kingston in 2019.

The harmonised waste and recycling collection service is designed to:
For information about each borough’s waste collection service please visit:

The contract

On 31 March 2017, the London Borough of Croydon, on behalf of the South London Waste Partnership, signed the ‘Contract for waste and recyclate collection and marketing, winter maintenance, vehicle maintenance and street cleaning (Lot 1)’ with Veolia.  In the interests of transparency and public accountability, the contract is available for members of the public to download and view.  Only information that is of a commercially sensitive nature has been blacked out: