Using Public Procurement to Drive Skills and Innovation
Department of Trade and Industry case study – March 2006
Extracts from the case study:
East London Community Recycling Partnership (ELCRP), a social enterprise based in Hackney, has developed an innovative system for recycling food waste and turning it into compost…
Public sector procurers have supported the development of this innovation as ELCRP has won contracts with government departments and local authorities…
Government has set local authorities targets to reduce the amount of domestic waste going to landfill sites. In response, many authorities are introducing programmes to recycle food waste and ELCRP has developed an innovative system that meets this market demand and turns food waste into compost.
ELCRP collects food waste from households and takes it to a heated composting unit on the estate called the 'Rocket'…
The Rocket heats the waste so compost is produced much more quickly than if it was just left to degrade naturally. The waste is heated to constant temperatures of 60 degrees centigrade and extractor fans help to circulate air. Compost is produced in two weeks rather than three or four months in a standard composter…
ELCRP has the only system that is compliant with the 2003 Animal By-Products Regulations for the safe disposal of animal by-products, which were designed to prevent a repeat of the food-and-mouth crisis. These regulations prevent kitchen waste being composted along with meat or other animal by-products unless approved by the Environment Agency…
The system was initially provided for 5,000 residents…with funding from the Clapton Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and subsequently, the Community Recycling and Economic Development (CRED) fund.
Public sector procurement has supported the innovation as ELCRP has won a number of contracts with local and central government. ELCRP has a contract with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to collect food waste from the department's site in Victoria, London, with a view to rolling this out to other government departments.
ELCRP also has a contract to collect estates' food waste for the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham. In both cases, the procurer required a food waste collection and composting system that met the requirements of the Animal By-Products Regulations…
The driver for Barking & Dagenham choosing to compost food waste was to help meet its targets to reduce the proportion of household waste going to landfill sites. ODPM wanted to be seen to set a positive example to other parts of central and local government by taking a lead role in introducing innovative recycling systems…