Severnside secures Defra waste deal

The deal, which was announced yesterday (June 16), was awarded by Defra's facilities management contractor Interserve and will involve Severnside dealing with waste from a range of facilities operated by the government department, such as offices, special laboratories and large estates, and cover a wide stream of waste materials.

Severnside, which has headquarters in Caerphilly, South Wales, intends to handle material collected from the department's sites at its 15 regional recycling facilities. This, in turn, will then be treated by specialist reprocessors.

Interserve has a 15-year deal with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) covering 186 sites and facilities throughout England and Wales under its Sustainable Built Environment Workplace Support contract, which covers areas such as energy security and maintenance services.

Commenting on the appointment of Severnside, Nikki Greening of Interserve said: “Severnside's dedication to landfill diversion was fundamental to its appointment. A key element of Interserve's partnership with Defra is to help them exceed their sustainability targets so that they can lead the way in sustainable Government.

“Severnside has a great track record in taking a completely sustainable approach to waste management, which made us very confident that the company would support our goal, especially on some of the more challenging waste streams,” she added.

Under the contract, Severnside is set to analyse waste collected from Defra sites to understand the quantities and types of waste generated. This is to help the waste management firm to identify the most applicable solution for dealing with the material.

For example, Severnside already sends its clients' food waste to be recovered into renewable energy via biomass-to-energy and anaerobic digestion.

Severnside

Severnside has also applied carbon offsetting into its offering to help Defra not only find alternative solutions for its waste, but also ensure that the chosen options are the most environmentally sound in terms of carbon impact.

Carwyn Gurmin, national sales manager at Severnside, said: “Working with Interserve and Defra is great for us and demonstrates our determination to find sustainable alternatives to waste management. The fact we view waste as a resource enables us to apply completely different thinking when it comes to how waste is handled.”

Mr Gurmin added: “We're looking forward to working with Interserve & Defra as the diverse portfolio means that we're expanding the expertise within our own business and can use some different technologies that have not be used within our traditional client base. It's a really exciting contract for us.”