Straight scoops £8m council recycling deal

The Leeds-based group said it has been appoin-ted by the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) and the Central Buying Consortium (CBC) to supply a range of products under a three-year refuse and recycling product framework agreement.

Straight has been awarded joint supplier status on an extensive range of core products including steel wheeled bins, kerbside boxes and food waste caddies.

It has also been awarded sole supplier status for the provision of compost bins to ESPO and CBC's customers.

ESPO and CBC are local government purchasing and distribution companies with a geographical spread from North Nottinghamshire through to Hampshire, including Bristol in the West and Norfolk in the East.

The agreement includes an option to deliver to individual households, public sector bodies and organisations, as well as UK-registered charities based in the area.

Straight said it is ideally placed to provide local authorities in England with a competitive compost bin programme as it supplied more than half of the compost bins used by the Government funded Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) during its six-year campaign.

Straight's chief executive Jonathan Straight said the range would include kerbside boxes, foodwaste caddies for indoor and outdoor use, woven kerbside bags, compostable liners made of paper and bioplastics and compost bins for bulk supply.

"In terms of the home composting campaigns we can now offer to all councils, we are looking forward to returning to the forefront of a market that we led for many years prior to WRAP's intervention," he said.

Last week Straight announced a sharp rise in orders which will boost trading. Mr Straight said the group had taken orders at "unprecedented levels" in the last three months of 2009 which will place it in a "strong position" for 2010.

Straight has transformed itself over the past few years, pulling out of non-profitable products sold to the public and refocusing on contracts with local councils.