Cory wins £70m Thurrock waste treatment deal from FCC

The contract will run from April 2024 and has been valued at £70 million for the first 10 years. Cory will takeover the contract from FCC Environment, which inherited the deal first signed in 2010 from the Waste Recycling Group (see letsrecycle.com story).

Cory outlined that it will process the waste it receives from the council at its Riverside energy from waste (EfW) facility in Belvedere where it will be converted to “partially-renewable baseload electricity, with the resulting ash recycled into construction materials”.

The waste will be transported to Belvedere by P.F Ahern London Ltd, one of Cory’s current customers and sub-contractors to Thurrock.

Dougie Sutherland, chief executive of Cory, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for Cory as we continue our efforts to decarbonise the waste produced by households and businesses in London and the South East.

“Not all waste can be recycled, and we are proud to provide a solution for our customers that avoids landfill and recognises that residual waste is a valuable resource which can provide benefits to our local communities once it is transformed into electricity. I look forward to beginning our work with Thurrock later this year.”

Council

The contract was announced by the council in December 2023 in heavily redacted minutes.

This explained that previous contract with FCC was signed in 2017 and due to expire in April 2024 with no possibility of an extension. Over the seven-year contract, the value of this deal was £47 million, working out at around £6.7 million per year.

The new contract with Cory was valued at £7 million over the next decade, working out at around £7 million per year.

“The new contract considers both the current levels of tonnages and also housing growth. We do not guarantee any tonnages, however, the contractor will have exclusive rights to this waste stream which means they will secure an income from the processing of this waste,” the minutes read.

They add: “As well as informing the specification, the market testing highlighted a key area of risk for this contract, regarding a future change to the Emissions Trading Scheme. This change (in 2028) will mean that Energy from Waste (EfW) plants will be included within this scheme and will have to buy permits for their emissions. Liability for this must therefore be considered in the context of this contract.”