Dear Mr Urquhart,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - INFORMATION REQUEST

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request received on 16 January relating to the Council's recycling companies and waste in the Borough. Your request has now been considered and I shall answer each of your questions in turn.

Details of all contracts between the Council and recycling companies in the past two years.

The Council employs a contractor, May Gurney, to undertake all domestic recycling collection within Hackney. The current contract commenced on 1st March 2007. The duration of this contract is 4 years with the possibility of 2 x 1 year extensions.

All contracts for the supply of materials to reporcessors are between May Gurney and the reprocessing company.

Information about the destination of the Borough's recycled waste.

All materials are collected and bulked by May Gurney, the councils recycling contractor and sent onwards for reprocessing to:

* Co-mingled materials are delivered direct to London Waste ltd and bulked on site.

The number and result of inspections carried out in the past year of the recycling companies with which the Borough has contracted.

North London Waste Authority (NLWA), Hackney's statutory waste disposal authority undertake twice annual duty of care inspections of facilities where recyclable material is sent for sorting and reprocessing on behalf of the seven North London Borough it represents.

As the regulatory body for England and Wales the Environment Agency monitors and undertakes inspections of waste and recycling facilities as opposed to individual local authorities. You may wish if you have not done so already contact the Environment Agency who is a separate public authority for the purposes of Act.

You can either email them at [email address] or write to them at: Environment Agency, PO Box 544, Rotherham, S60 1BY.

If you are dissatisfied with this response and wish to appeal, please write to the Information Governance Team, Appeals, 6-15 Florfield Road, Hackney London E8 1DTand your complaint will be dealt with through our Internal Review procedure.

If you are still not satisfied following the Internal Review, you have a right to appeal to the Information Commissioner. He can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF 
Telephone: 01625 545 700

Yours sincerely

Reaz Khedarun

Information Governance Officer

ICT

Christine Peacock, Head of ICT, 6- 15 Florfield Road, Reading Lane, London E8 1DT

E8 1DT