The Contract should oblige the Contractor to accept the Contract Waste delivered by the Authority. However there are likely to be limitations to the obligation to accept that the Contract Management Team should be aware of. The main types of limitation are:
• tonnage based - there may be a maximum tonnage limit based on the capacity of the facility provided by the Contractor; and
• compositional - the definition of Contract Waste varies significantly from project to project. However in general terms it is likely that if waste falls outside the definition the Contractor may not be obliged to accept it. Alternatively there may be an obligation to accept the waste but the normal obligations to treat the waste may not apply or the amount payable by the Authority may be amended to reflect additional costs incurred by the Contractor.
Under the WIDP Contract (Clause 23) if the Authority's Contract Waste exceeds the maximum tonnage specified in the Contract then the Contractor is obliged to use reasonable endeavours to accept the additional waste. However the Contractor is only obliged to terminate third party contracts to release capacity for the Authority if the Authority agrees to pay the breakage costs.
The Contract Management Manual should set out procedures for the Authority to take prompt decisions about how to deal with waste in excess of the maximum. These may need to include arrangements for securing a disposal solution with alternative waste contractors.
There are a wide range of detailed operational issues relating to waste acceptance. Typically these are dealt with in a Schedule to the Contract called the Waste Acceptance Protocol. This is a key part of the Contract that should be well understood by all members of the Contract Management Team. See Appendix G for a Waste Acceptance Protocol [WIDP would be grateful for examples of a suitable Waste Acceptance Protocol to insert here. Confidential information would be removed before including this in the final version of the Guidance]. It is therefore recommended that this issue is dealt with in detail in the Contract Management Manual. Decision tree diagrams can be a useful aid to clarifying the inter-relationships between decisions about whether the Contractor is obliged to accept the waste, the Contractor's obligation if the waste is accepted and the payment implications in each scenario.
Under the WIDP Contract (Clause 24) once the Contractor has accepted the waste it is the legal owner of that waste and responsible for the handling and disposal of the waste. However under the Clause 25 the Contractor is obliged to process Contract Waste in priority to other waste.