Westminster City Council is aiming to achieve zero waste by 2040, setting a bold environmental target for the coming years.
The council's Climate Action, Environment and Highways Policy and Scrutiny Committee met on Thursday to discuss the procurement timeline for the Waste and Cleansing Contract and some of the strategic challenges and opportunities for the future service. The current contract is due to expire on 15 September 2027, and cannot be extended beyond that date. To ensure a smooth transition, the council plans to issue the Invitation to Tender (ITT) by October 2025.
The new contract aims to establish a collaborative partnership that delivers innovation and operational efficiencies and enable a flexible and future-proof contract, responsive to legislative changes and changing customer needs. According to the Waste and Cleansing Service Contract Procurement report, the council is seeking a collaborative delivery partner to achieve strategic aims for the future service in the context of an increasingly challenging national policy and financial context. This includes delivering on the social and environmental priorities underpinning the Fairer Westminster ambitions, whilst maintaining the exceptional service levels and cleanliness standards expected for the city.
The council is considering options for forming a comprehensive and representative picture of residents' needs and circumstances, considering factors such as place, building type, tenure arrangement and protected characteristics. The council is seeking to meet the needs of all communities as it addresses the challenges of increased recycling and street cleanliness. To inform the approach to driving the proactive behaviors that will deliver this, the council needs to build a better understanding of the range of lived experiences of waste management, service levels and service use, for those living and operating in the city. The density of Westminster's built environment and range of building types, with often limited options for waste storage in properties and in compact flats, makes this particularly challenging locally.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) must review and approve any waste contract procurement documentation before it is released in a 108-day review process. The council submitted the necessary specification documentation to GLA on 19 June, 2025 for their review to ensure that submitted documents meet the conformity requirements for the Mayor's Environment Plan.
The council is considering its long-term vision for Westminster's Waste and Cleansing Service, focusing on addressing the future financial, environmental, and legal challenges the council faces in operating the service while ensuring exceptionally high standards of service and street cleanliness for residents, businesses and visitors. The procurement is an opportunity for the council to cement its long-term strategic priorities, working with their delivery partner to develop and deliver them. WCC has identified the following long-term priorities to meet its strategic imperatives:
- Increasing recycling, food waste and other diverted streams to reduce the volumes of waste generated across the city
- Street cleanliness standards maintained at current high levels
- Meeting the needs of all our communities in a manner that reflects the dynamic, complex, and diverse characteristics of Westminster and the challenges of its dense urban fabric, compact living conditions, and limited outdoor space for waste storage.
A principle strategic focus for the future service will be: How do we increase recycling across the city while maintaining first-in-class service standards and clean streets?
To encourage residents and businesses to increase recycling and food waste diversion, the council is considering options such as:
- Making recycling as easy as possible, including easy access to recycling containers and bags
- Introduction of containment where this is possible, such as building further upon the bin roll out in Queens Park, as a way to improve the street scene in certain areas and make it easier to target communications to residents
- Adding materials to micro-recycling centres/bring banks
- An increased focus on materials to encourage recycling in flats, including review of containers, communications materials, and signage
- Well-funded and frequent communications campaigns focused on hardto-reach communities
- 'Estate action days' to tackle high levels of contamination and issues with communal containers by engaging with the local community on-site
- Targeting of further materials for recycling, particularly plastic film, as required from 2027.
According to the Waste and Cleansing Service Contract Procurement report, approximately 75% of what is currently thrown away and collected can be diverted from the general waste streams to the recycling and food waste streams that are already in place. However, as seen in Figure 1, only 25% of all waste is currently diverted.
As shown in Figure 2 below, approximately two thirds of what is collected and disposed as residual waste are materials that could instead be collected in our recycling and food waste streams. If all recyclables and food waste were recycled, we would only be sending one third of the amount of general waste that we currently send for disposal, bringing substantial benefits environmentally and financially, and building a lower-waste future.
According to the Waste Contract Specification Introduction, behaviour change requires the service to make recycling easier and more convenient, while also guarding against increased contamination of recycling streams and maintaining standards for clean streets.
The Waste and Cleansing Service Contract Procurement report also notes that Westminster has the highest cost per head for waste management expenditures of any borough in London, as shown in Figure 3.
To inform the approach to driving the proactive behaviours that will deliver this, the Council needs to build a better understanding of the range of lived experiences of waste management, service levels and service use, for those living and operating in the city. The density of Westminster's built environment and range of building types, with often limited options for waste storage in properties and in compact flats, makes this particularly challenging locally.
