New waste and recycling contract to continue high quality services and help borough meet green targets
Kingston Council has reappointed Veolia as waste and recycling collection, street cleansing and winter gritting contractor for the next eight years.
The new contract will commence on 1 April 2025 and will see the continuation of a high quality waste and recycling service across the borough. Kingston has one of the highest recycling rates in London and high waste and recycling satisfaction rates - as well as being one of the first councils in the country to introduce a fully electric household waste and recycling collection fleet. The new contract will build on these successes and drive further improvements.
Veolia’s appointment follows extensive engagement with residents and stakeholders, and a robust, open tender process to ensure best value for communities.
The new contract builds on the high quality services across household and commercial waste and recycling collection, food and green wastes, street cleaning and winter gritting. It will be managed directly by Kingston, replacing the current approach through the South London Waste Partnership, ensuring services can be delivered flexibly to meet local needs. Kingston continues its partnership approach with the South London Waste Partnership to deliver best value solutions for the waste and recycling collected in the borough and the management of the borough’s Household Reuse and Recycling Centre.
Planned improvements will help make the service greener and more sustainable, and improve and modernise customer service and experience.
Households will benefit from quicker delivery times for food waste containers and recycling boxes. Delivery will be reduced to five days to encourage more residents to recycle, particularly food waste. The council will also work with Veolia to identify further recycling improvements and deliver upgrades to five communal sites in the borough a year.
As well as continuing to be one of the first local authorities to have a fully electric household waste collection fleet, the borough will have a new fleet of greener vehicles for street cleaning. This will include a mix of electric and sustainable Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil fueled vehicles. This means there will be no diesel operated vehicles in the service, bringing the borough closer to its Net Zero target.
There will be a more integrated, mechanised approach to street cleaning that will improve the efficiency of the service. There will also be additional cleaning resources in Kingston Town Centre and a continued, targeted approach to cleaning heavily parked residential roads.
Leader of Kingston Council, Cllr Andreas Kirsch, said:
“We understand how important it is for our residents to have an efficient and reliable waste and recycling collection service, clean streets and public spaces that we can be proud of and enjoy together.
“We have listened to feedback from communities and, following a robust selection process, we have secured the continuation of a well run service that delivers customer satisfaction, strong recycling rates and will continue to improve environmental performance.
“As a council we are always looking for sustainable solutions to tackle climate change and get us closer to our Net Zero target. I’m delighted to see that following the introduction of our fully electric waste and recycling collection fleet last year, we are now looking at replacing our street cleaning fleet with more sustainable and environment friendly vehicles powered by electricity or Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil.
“We’re looking forward to continuing to work with Veolia to make our waste and recycling services even better and more sustainable.”
Pascal Hauret, Veolia’s Managing Director, Municipal, said:
"We look forward to working hand-in-hand with Kingston Council to address their key priorities. Together, we will strive to create a positive impact at the local level and pave the way for a more sustainable future that benefits all residents."
Veolia has been providing waste management services for Kingston for over 15 years, currently through a joint South London Waste Partnership’s arrangement that will cease on 31 March 2025.
The new contract with Veolia will run for eight years starting 1 April 2025, with the possibility of extension for a further eight years.