The unanimous decision by the council's cabinet this week represents a complete turn around for Norfolk, which originally named Waste Recycling Group as its preferred contractor for the 25-year deal (see letsrecycle.com story).
” This is the first time a local authority-owned waste disposal company has gone this far in this kind of large scale contract. “
– Mark Godden, SRM Ltd
Monday saw the county's cabinet confirming SRM Ltd – a subsidiary of county-owned Norfolk Environmental Waste Services – to take responsibility for around 150,000 tonnes of residual household waste each year.
The go ahead means SRM can start work with local construction firm May Gurney to build a mechanical biological treatment (MBT) plant in Costessey to process the waste.
The MBT plant is intended to recover 27% of residual waste for recycling- equivalent to over 43,000 tonnes of material a year.
Mark Godden, project manager for the SRM bid, told letsrecycle.com: “To get to this stage is exciting and to my knowledge this is the first time a local authority-owned waste disposal company has gone this far in this kind of large scale contract. This is a very good development for us and we are very pleased.”
Joel Hull, waste project manager at Norfolk county council, added: “We are hoping to sign the contract later this year which would lead to new waste management service coming online from 2011 at the latest.”
Longwater
Under SRM's proposal, residual waste will be sent to the Costessey site – the Longwater Industrial Estate – where the company already has most of the planning permission it needs.
Here, the waste will be sorted and graded to remove recyclable material before remaining biodegradable material is sent for anaerobic digestion for 21 days, during which biogas will be generated for power generation.
The final phase, to stabilise the waste, will involve composting into a material suitable for land remediation. Unusually, the plant will not produce refuse-derived fuel (RDF). SRM are hoping to begin construction next year.
Mr Godden said: “The beauty of the plant is we can take in difficult materials such as dirty paper for anaerobic digestion and we are quite confident we have markets for the end products.”
| Related links: |
Contract
However, Mr Godden said that the plant was only intended to treat waste from Broadland district council, Great Yarmouth Borough council, Norwich city council and South Norfolk council.
He said: “The contract only meets half of our residual waste needs in Norfolk. We will need another service alongside this to treat around 200,000 tonnes of waste per annum, which we will move forward with from next year.”
Register for free to comment