Buckinghamshire opts for EfW

The county authority has announced that it has narrowed down 12 proposals for a 25-year thermal treatment deal – which passed the pre-qualification stage last year- to bids from waste firms Veolia Environmental Services, Waste Recycling Group and US incinerator specialist Covanta Energy Limited.

All three companies are proposing to build and operate energy from waste plants which will be able to create both heat and electricity from 210,000 tonnes of waste a year by 2020, at a capital cost of around £100 million.

The move follows a decision by Buckinghamshire council in January 2007 to opt for thermal treatment solution for the county's residual household waste, after weighing it up against mechanical biological treatment (see letsrecycle.com story).

Explaining why Buckinghamshire council had opted for EfW, a spokeswoman told letsrecycle.com today: “Out of all the technologies we have looked at, EfW offers the best solution to meet Buckinghamshire's requirements. Other types of facilities such as mechanical biological treatment leave residual waste that would still need to be either landfilled or treated further.

“EfW is a tried, tested and proven technology which is run to strict environmental standards. It also has the added advantage of producing electricity which can be used to power local homes or be sold to the national grid,” she added.

Landfill

At present, WRG already runs a landfill site in Buckinghamshire outside Milton Keynes at Longville and Veolia runs a landfill sites at Wapsey's Wood near Gerrard's Cross.

Some 275,000 tonnes of household waste is generated in Buckinghamshire every year, with 64% going to landfill.

However, Buckinghamshire is eager to divert waste from landfill after its existing contracts come to an end between 2009 and 2012, due to rising landfill tax and impending European penalties.

Martin Tett, Buckinghamshire's cabinet member for the strategic planning, said: “Government and European Union taxes and fines of up to £48 per tonnes on all landfill and up to £150 a tonne on biological, organic waste would result in huge increases in council tax or massive cuts in service if we do nothing.

“We have set very challenging targets for recycling but we still fact the problem of what to do with our non-recyclable household waste. The environmental problems of continued landfill are also very serious with emissions of methane gas being a major UK contributor to global warming,” he added.

Proposals

Now, Veolia, Covanta and WRG will be invited to submit detailed proposals to Buckinghamshire, followed by final tenders. Buckinghamshire expects to announce a preferred bidder by November.
Any successful bidder will have to submit a detailed planning application to the council's independent development control committee.

Sites must conform to and be guided by the county's emerging Waste and Minerals Plan (LDF), which is the core strategy which will go out to public consultation in late February. This contains a number of preferred sites propsed for EfW including Calvert in the north of the county, Wapseys Wood in Gerrards Cross and Springfield Farm in Beaconsfield.

Subject to planning, it is hoped the CHP plant will come online by 2013/14.