Council employs company based 448 miles away to deliver bins

Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) has employed the services of a company based 448 miles away from Perth to deliver its bins.

Over 71,000 Perth and Kinross households are currently taking delivery of their new grey-lidded recycling bin.

But eyebrows were raised in some quarters as to why a bin – designed to help tackle climate change – was being delivered by a company whose headquarters were so far away.

Jett Distribution in Norfolk however says it is the only company doing this in the UK and delivers and collects over 2.5 million products every year in the UK and Europe.

Over the past few weeks thousands of Perth and Kinross households have received their new grey-lidded bin for metals, plastics, cartons and foil. Kerbside collections for the new recycling service are scheduled to start on October 30.

Jett Distribution has been given the job of delivering the bins to homes across Perth and Kinross due to the niche nature of the task.

A spokesperson for the Great Yarmouth-based company told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We are the only company doing this line of work throughout the UK and we distribute through UK/Ireland and sometimes Germany.

“But to clarify, 90 per cent of our work is carried out for the wheeled bin manufacturers, who are successful in their public tenders. Part of their winning tenders is to supply wheeled bins and distribute to households.

“They then recruit our services, which makes Jett a sub-contractor to the wheeled bin companies. All three wheeled bin companies are based in England – Yorkshire, Liverpool, and Telford.”

Jett has done a lot of work in Scotland recently for other local authorities including both Stirling and Clackmannanshire. But the company insists its workers give back and “live like a local” whilst in the local authority area doing the physically demanding job.

A company spokesman said: “The project in Perth and Kinross is a longer project – about eight to 12 weeks – because it’s a very rural area it takes a bit longer. The bins are stored in a local depot and we transport them to residents. We carry about 150-160 bins at a time and go backwards and forwards to the depot.

“We use local accommodation, local fuel suppliers and buy food and drink locally. We live like a local and do give back.”

Perth and Kinross Council said that while a specialist company was being used to deliver individual bins, PKC was responsible for commercial and communal bins.

A PKC spokesperson said: “The wheelie bins are being delivered to residential properties by a company, with headquarters in Great Yarmouth, that specialises in delivering wheelie bins for local authorities across the UK, and who are operating out of Perth while this takes place. Perth and Kinross Council is responsible for delivering commercial and communal bins.”