Decision details

Award of Contract for the Sale of Consortium Newsprint

Exempt report of the Chief Executive on the Award of Contract for the Sale of Consortium Newspaper.

(1)       The Decision Taken

RESOLVED:

(unanimous)

The General Procurement Board unanimously agreed to recommend to Cabinet that a waiver be made to Contract Procedure Rules and make a direct award to Palm Recycling Limited for the period 1 June 2021 to 30 May 2023 (with an optional one-year extension) for both News and Pams and Mixed Papers.

(2)       Reasons for the Decision

Welwyn Hatfield was currently the lead authority in a consortium of Hertfordshire and Chelmsford Borough Council to sell their recovered Newsprint and Mixed paper.

In February 2020 Cabinet agreed a one-year contract (for the period June 2020 to May 2021) at fixed prices as there was so much uncertainty in the market at the time.

The General Procurement Board met to agree the procurement options of the new contract beyond May 2021.  It was unanimously agreed to negotiate a new contract with Palm recycling.

For News and Pams, the new price will be based on the average of the mid-point of the Lets Recycle and Euwid indices + £5 per tonne and there will be a minimum guarantee price of £45.00 per tonne. 

For mixed paper, the new price will be based on the average of the mid-point of the Lets Recycle and Euwid indices + £2.50 per tonne.  The minimum guarantee price will be zero, which means we would not need to pay to have the material collected. 

All the authorities within the consortium agreed that this is the best outcome achieved under the current market condition.