Food Waste Contract

ELWA is procuring a contract for the provision of the following services (without limitation):

The scope of the Contract includes:

- receiving, treating and managing onward movement of delivered Contract Waste, which is food waste collected from households and commercial customers by the Constituent Councils;

- Contract Waste will be delivered to the successful Bidder's nominated delivery point (either a waste treatment facility or an intermediary facility provided by the successful Bidder) in bulk haulage vehicles by the RHRRC Contractor after the Contract Waste has been delivered by the Constituent Councils to one of the Authority WTS. The successful Bidder may also propose to receive direct deliveries of Contract Waste from the Constituent Councils to its facilities;

- Provision of capacity to receive, treat and dispose of food waste;

- Management and disposal of products, residues and rejected waste, including transport;

- Maximising the recycling and beneficial use of products; and

- Reporting and monitoring of environmental compliance.

Please see "Competitive flexible procedure description" section of this tender notice and the procurement documents for full details of:

1 - the competitive flexible procedure that ELWA is conducting pursuant to s. 20 of the Procurement Act 2023; and

2 - ELWA's requirements for the Contract.

(Defined terms used in the above list of services are detailed in the draft contract and procurement documents.)

The Authority conducted initial preliminary market engagement in September and October 2025 (Notice identifier: 2025/S 000-052845). As part of the exercise, the Authority published a Market Operator Briefing Note in which it explained that the main objective of the contract is to maximise recycling of food waste. Four organisations participated in this exercise and provided feedback in respect of:

The Authority's procurement strategy;

Assumptions for evaluation;

Contract interface as the Authority has separately procured a reception, haulage, reuse and recycling centre contract;

Waste acceptance protocols and vehicles that can/cannot be accepted at facilities;

Processes for identifying and recording contamination;

Use of caddy liners in collection of food waste;

Digestate markets;

Payment mechanisms;

Experiences of performance management frameworks; and

Social value.

In addition, the Authority conducted additional market engagement in February 2026 (Notice identifier: 2026/S 000-014949) to seek views in respect of proposals to divide the Contract into lots, or whether to procure a single contract for 100% exclusivity of all food waste material. Four organisations participated in this exercise and the majority provided feedback that they would prefer a single contract for 100% exclusivity. Consequently, ELWA is not dividing the contract into lots and is awarding a single contract for 100% exclusivity of all food waste material.

In each of the preliminary market engagements, it was clearly specified that participation in the preliminary market engagement was/is not a requirement for participation in this procurement.

The contract value is based on ELWA's estimate at the date of publication of the Tender Notice and the draft procurement documents and includes extension of the contract for five years following expiry of the initial 5-year and 3-month service delivery term. The estimated value also includes any services which may be required during the initial 5-year service delivery period. Therefore, the estimated value is not necessarily the final value of the Contract and ELWA reserves the right to vary this contract value (either higher or lower) in the event the scope of the contract varies throughout its term. It is intended as a guide to Bidders and the actual value is intended to cover delivery of ELWA's requirements over the full possible 10-year term.