No 'mass burn' as pair compete for Milton Keynes
31 January 2012
Milton Keynes council today announced a short list of two companies to compete for treatment of residual waste from the authority’s area and said the authority had avoided a 'mass burn' solution.
The authority revealed that AmeyCespa is to compete with FCC(working with the Waste Recycling Group WRG), for the development and operation of a residual treatment facility. Both firms have a Spanish connection: FCC is a large Spanish waste and construction firm, while Cespa is a Spanish firm owned by Grupo Ferrovial which also owns Heathrow airport.
The shortlist decision means that Viridor and the New Earth Remondis Consortium are out of the running after being named as the other two of four final bidders for the contract in September 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Both shortlisted solutions involve the development of a facility on a council-owned site at Dickens Road, Old Wolverton to treat approximately 80,000 tonnes of residual waste every year. The site is not far from the materials recycling facility run by Viridor.
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- Serco currently collect black sack residual waste and pink recycling sacks for Milton Keynes council
Solutions
Milton Keynes said that the solutions comply with the council’s ‘no mass burn’ incineration policy and are expected to use “heat treatment to produce green energy” from the waste.
Commenting on the shortlist Andy Hudson, the council’s head of environment and waste, said: “We are very excited to be entering into this final phase before selecting our preferred partner. Both bidders have a wealth of experience to draw upon, both here in the UK and in Europe, to develop an excellent solution to meet the needs of Milton Keynes.”
Both AmeyCespa and FCC have been invited to develop their solutions for the final submission in the summer. The preferred bidder is expected to be selected in September 2012 and the facility fully operational by April 2016.
Milton Keynes’ waste is currently collected by Serco which carries out a weekly kerbside collection of waste and recycling on behalf of the council. Residual waste is collected in a black sack, whilst dry recyclables are collected in a pink sack.
Project Reduce
In October 2010 the Project Reduce, a partnership between Milton Keynes council and Northamptonshire county council, became one of the seven projects to lose PFI funding as part of Defra’s spending review (see letsrecycle.com story), throwing the future of the project into doubt.
Project Reduce was abandoned by the councils in December 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story) following the withdrawal of the £138 million PFI funding. Milton Keynes council told letsrecycle.com today that the new contract carried on the original idea of the residual waste treatment project but on a smaller scale.
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