Description
The Government's collection and packaging reforms represent the biggest change to the UK's waste and recycling sector for c.25 years. Simpler Recycling aims to make it easier for households and businesses to recycle, including making provisions by 31 March 2027 for all local authorities in England to collect plastic bags and wrapping (flexibles) for recycling from all households.
The FlexFlats project aims to understand how local authorities can provide an efficient and effective flexibles collection service to residents who live in purpose-built flats and share bins (communal bins).
The pilots will be carried out in partnership with three London local authorities with five pilot sites (blocks) in each. The local authorities are:
• London borough of Bexley (twin-stream dry recycling service)
• London borough of Lewisham (comingled dry recycling service)
• Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (commingled dry recycling service)
The pilot will trial a range of methods for flexibles plastics collection in 15 blocks of flats across the three boroughs. Each block will have a minimum of 25 households and will have a residual waste and dry recycling collection service already in place.
A range of in-home solutions will be piloted. Flexibles sorted in the home will then be collected externally in either the usual dry recycling bin or a separate flexibles bin in the communal bin area - it is anticipated that separate flexibles bins will be no larger than 240l.
Pilots are still being finalised but are likely to include the following:
In-home options External infrastructure options*
1 No home separation - resident behaves as now (control) Usual recycling bin
2 In-home separation using residents own bags Standard wheeled bin (lined) /
Lid-in-lid bin (lined) /
Sack holder
3 In-home separation using rolls of bags delivered by the local authority Usual recycling bin (co-mingled) /
Lid-in-lid bin (lined) /
Sack holder
4 In-home separation using provided storage caddy (non-compaction), with residents using own bags Standard wheeled bin (lined) /
Lid-in-lid bin (lined) /
Sack holder
*External options are being finalised with local authorities, and depend on local factors such as available space and collection and sorting methodology.
Blocks will have a weekly collection frequency of residual waste and dry recycling, as a minimum.
The pilots are scheduled to go live in late September 2026, with baseline monitoring taking place prior (including WCA). Pilots will run for 3.5 months, running until mid-January 2027, with post-monitoring taking place upon project close.
The following project deliverables will be undertaken by the succesful bidder:
• Two phase waste composition analysis to be undertaken for waste and recycling from all properties at up to 15 pilot sites situated across 15 housing estates/blocks within three London boroughs (five within each borough), using one or more sort sites provided by the local authorities.
Phase 1: Pre-pilot WCA - to be undertaken between 7th - 26th September 2026 before interventions are introduced
Phase 2: Post-pilot WCA - to be undertaken late January/early February 2027 to assess impact of interventions
• Sorting to meet the data classification provided;
• Confirmation of all appropriate permits to sort waste and (if required) transport waste;
• Provision of a risk assessment in advance of any collection and sorting;
• Attendence at an inception meeting via Teams and attendance at regular contract meetings during peak delivery periods (30 minutes/fortnightly or as required) and any other communications as required leading up to and required between project phases;
• Delivery of the project outputs as set out in section 5;
• Presentation of the results of the project (online via teams)
• Final close down meeting (1 hour duration online), anticipated to be held February / March 2027.
Scope of work
Sorting and categorisation requirements
Separately recorded sort data will be required for each block/bin store, for each phase of the WCA. This will be comprised of up to 15 blocks in total (across three local authority areas), with approximately 500-700 properties' waste across these, per phase.
Residual, dry recycling and separate flexibles (where applicable) will require sorting into the high level categories set out below. Appendix 1 shows the required sub-catagorisation of materials for each of these high level categories.
Phase 1:
Waste stream Classifications Data
Residual waste (all bins in bin area/block) Target flexibles
Non-target flexibles
Non-flexibles dry recyclables
Food waste
All other waste Kg/hh/wk per bin area/block for each category
Dry recycling (all bins in bin area/block) Target flexibles
Non-target flexibles/
Non-flexibles recyclables
Food waste
All other waste Kg/hh/wk per bin area/block for each category
Phase 2:
Waste stream Classification (group) Data
Residual waste (all bins in bin area/block) Target flexibles
Non-target flexibles/
Non-flexibles recyclables
Food waste
All other waste Kg/hh/wk per bin area/block for each category
Dry recycling (all bins in bin area/block) Target flexibles
Non-target flexibles/
Non-flexibles recyclables
Food waste
All other waste Kg/hh/wk per bin area/block for each category
Capture rate of target flexibles (where applicable)
Separate flexibles bins (where applicable) Target flexibles
Non-target flexibles/
Non-flexibles plastic recyclables
All other waste Kg/hh/wk per bin area/block for each category
Capture rate of target flexibles
For flexibles in all waste streams, in addition to target/non-target classification, a more detailed compositional classification is required.
This may be amended/condensed during discussions with the appointed bidder but as an indication this may include the detail in the table below. Advice on suitable classifications with rationale for these is welcomed as part of the tender process.
Sort category expanded list
Target/non target Cat 1 Cat 2
Target
Bags
- Plastic carrier bags
- Plastic parcel/delivery bags/dry cleaning bags/clothing bags
- Thin plastic bags used for loose fruit/freezer bags/sandwich bags
- FlexFlats provided liners/survival bags
- Refuse bags/bin liners (including carrier bags used for rubbish)
- Pasta and rice bags/ready packed salad/veg bags/cereal box liners
- Bread bags/frozen food bags/pet food bags
Wrappers/packets
- Plastic labels/wrapping from around drinks bottles
- Films such as ready meal/fruit punnet lids and yogurt pot lids
- Crisp and nut packets
- Biscuit packets
- Plastic chocolate bar and sweet wrappers including sharing bags
- Cheese/meat/fish wrappers
Outer layer packaging
- Plastic packaging used by retailers to deliver household items, such as appliances
- Plastic wrapping used for crisp, nut and sweet multipacks
- Magazine and newspaper wrapping
- Mulitpack wrapping and rings from bottle and can multipacks
- Wrapping from toilet and kitchen roll packs
Cling film
Bubble wrap
Plastic fruit net bags
Non-target
Pouches
- Pouches or sachets used for food (such as microwaveable rice, drinks, baby or pet food)
- Pouches or sachets used for cleaning products such as dishwasher or laundry tablets
Contaminated packaging film
Compostable films
Other non-target film
- Plastic punched pockets such as 'poly pockets', disposable gloves, balloons, all other
It is expected that all waste presented in a bin store will be analysed in order to estimate kg/hh/wk - however we welcome bidders to advise on the size or quantity (kg) of samples required from each material stream to provide a stastically robust sample to understand the quantity and composition of flexibles and flexible arisings from households.
Waste collection and sort site
Collection and sort site arrangements are yet to be confirmed. One or more sort sites will be provided, within the partner boroughs, but exact location(s) is yet to be confirmed. The site(s) will have the required waste management licences and ability to appropriately dispose of the waste upon completion of the analysis.
If there is a preference for single or multiple sort sites please indicate this in your bid.
Material collection may be undertaken by the partner local authority, with material delivery to the selected sort site, or this may be a requirement of the successful bidder. ReLondon will work with partner boroughs to determine if waste can be collected and delivered to the sort site by their waste crews/contractors. Bidders should provide an itemised cost line within the tender response for the collection of the waste from blocks in case this cannot be arranged.
If samples are to be collected by the successful bidder, the following information will be provided:
• Pilot location addresses;
• Collection day and collection time for dry recycling and residual waste and, for phase 2, the relevant collection day and time of any separate flexbles containers;
• Location of the waste presentation points (via a PDF map) and the number of bins of each waste stream at each point;
• Number of properties at each location;
• Keys and access codes where relevant.
The indicative budget for this contract is £60,000 including VAT.