New waste and recycling contract enhances services and delivers on green ambitions
Kingston is set to further enhance its waste and recycling services while advancing its green ambitions, as a new contract with Veolia began on 1 April 2025.
The new contract will deliver further improvements to services, as well as supporting the borough to meet its green targets. There will be no changes to the way Kingston residents access their current services.
Veolia’s appointment follows extensive engagement with residents and stakeholders, and a robust, open tender process to ensure best value for communities. Veolia consistently delivers exceptional service in Kingston, completing over 840k monthly collections, 99.9% of which are on time.Kingston has the fourth highest recycling rate in London, at 44.1%. It is also one of the first councils in the country to introduce a fully electric household waste and recycling collection fleet. The new contract with Veolia will build on these successes and drive further improvements.
The borough will introduce a new fleet of greener vehicles for street cleaning. This will include a mix of electric and sustainable Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil fueled vehicles. An electric trike will be used to remove bags from Kingston Town Centre, helping it to look cleaner and tidier.
Households will benefit from quicker delivery times for food waste containers and recycling boxes. Delivery will be reduced to five days and will encourage more residents to participate in recycling, particularly the separation of food waste from the residual waste stream.
The new contract will be managed directly by Kingston Council, but the local authority will continue its partnership with the South London Waste Partnership to deliver best value solutions for the treatment and disposal of waste and recycling collected in the borough and the management of the borough’s Household Reuse and Recycling Centre.
Councillor Nicola Nardelli, Portfolio Holder for Sustainable Transport and Waste and Recycling, said:
“We're happy to see our work with Veolia continue for another eight years and we look forward to making our waste and recycling services even better and more sustainable.
“We understand that an efficient and reliable waste and recycling collection service, as well as clean streets and public spaces, are important to our residents. As a council we believe that this contract will secure top quality services and move us closer to our Net Zero goals.”
Veolia has been providing waste management services for Kingston for over 15 years, the new contract with Veolia will run for eight years starting 1 April 2025, with the possibility of extension for a further eight years.