National recycling and waste management provider, Biffa, has secured the waste collection contract for Cornwall Council.

The eight-year deal, which comes with an option to extend for a further two, will see Biffa responsible for waste and recycling collections and street and public open space cleansing across the region.

Biffa has been successfully providing these services in Cornwall for the past three years.

As part of the new agreement, initiatives next year will include a new state-of-the-art collection fleet, wheeled bins and food waste collection. There will be weekly separate collection of food waste, with fortnightly recycling and rubbish collections, and from summer 2021, as part of a special campaign, every household will hear from the council about their own role in this recycling revolution.

Roger Edwards, Managing Director of Municipal, said: “We are delighted to have been nominated as the preferred bidder for the new Cornwall contract. We are looking forward to introducing new services to significantly improve recycling rates. The local Biffa team pride themselves on the excellent service provided to date and we look forward to continuing our productive working relationship with Cornwall Council.’”

Cornwall Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Public Protection, Rob Nolan, said: “This contract sees Cornwall poised to transform its recycling, something residents told us in our 2017 survey was a priority. We are very pleased to be continuing to work with Biffa. Following very positive collaborative dialogue and a ‘can do’ approach by everyone – especially Biffa – we now have a way of hitting impressive recycling targets.

“If, like most of the top-performing parts of the UK, we begin putting our food waste out for collection every week from Summer 2021, we can in one leap transform our recycling rates from the currently disappointing 38% to over 50%.”

The new contract will commence will on 3rd October 2020.