AmeyCespa confirmed for Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes council has announced that AmeyCespa, owned by Spains Grupo Ferrovial,is itspreferred bidder to design, build and operate a new, state-of-the-art waste treatment facility in the borough.

The two contenders for the work were both Spanish-owned businesses and AmeyCespa emerged as the only final contender for the project after its rival FCC Environment pulled out at the dialogue stage. It is thought that FCC may have opted to focus instead on its energy from waste project at Greatmoor for Buckinghamshire county council, 20 miles west of Milton Keynes.

Milton Keyneshas a non-mass burn policy and so bidders had to put forward technologies to treat around 80,000 tonnes of waste using other solutions. (see letsrecycle.com story).

AmeyCespas work will involve three processes:

• Mechanical treatment technology by Stadler to extract recyclable materials from the residual waste.
• An anaerobic digestor operated by Celtic Bieonergy which will treat the food or organic wastefraction to create renewable energy and a compost-like-output.
• An Energos advanced thermal treatment facilitywhich will turn the remaining unrecyclable waste into a gas, which is combusted to generate high temperature steam which then creates electricity in a turbine.

Recycling

Thenew facilities will be developed adjacent to the citys famous materials recycling facility at Old Wolverton Milton Keynes pioneered the sorting of commingled materials.

Planning permission is to be sought in 2013 to be followed by a relatively long build process with the site due to be fully operational in 2016. AmeyCespa, which was created in 2007, will run the plant for 15 years from 2016.

Milton Keynes council said the technologies will bring a number of benefits:

Waste management savings of 50million over the design life of the facility
Increased recycling levels
Landfill use cut by 95%
Job creation 200 during construction and 45 once operational
On-site visitor and education centre for use by schools and the wider community

Cllr David Hopkins, Milton Keynes cabinet member for environment and waste, said: Milton Keynes Council has an excellent recycling record and has set out to build on this by recovering as much as possible for recycling and composting from our black sack waste and generating renewable energy with whats left.

Following dialogue with AmeyCespa, we believe they have come up with an innovative long-term, value for money solution which will meet these aims. We are looking forward to now progressing these plans, combining our ideas with AmeyCespas wealth of experience to deliver this exciting project which will benefit all our residents for many years to come.

Innovative

AmeyCespas project director, Bill Jarvis, said: Milton Keynes council has taken a forward-looking and innovative approach to dealing with waste in order to deliver cost savings and environmental benefits for its residents.

‘This contract strengthens our waste management model in the UK’

Santiago Olivares, CEO Ferrovial Services

We are all creating waste and this is forecast to continue, with local households producing 80,000 tonnes a year by 2040.

We are fully committed to working with the council and the local community as we develop our proposals for the new facility, which will deliver a jobs boost to the area, as well as cut waste management costs and increase recycling.

Santiago Olivares, CEO of Ferrovial Services, said: “This contract strengthens our waste management model in the UK by offering an integral solution to a growing urban area. Without doubt, this project will be a benchmark for innovation, sustainability and efficiency, not only because of its process and technology, but also because of its financing structure”.

The mechanical sorting process is expected to collect material such as cans and cardboard although poor quality paper will be sent to the anaerobic digestion plant.

It is understood that the obligation will be on AmeyCespa to find markets for the recyclables which come out of the Stadler plant. The contract is also not thought to have set a minimum tonnage to be delivered which gives AmeyCespa the potential flexibility to take in other material.

Funding for the plant sees Milton Keynes prudentially borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board with AmeyCespa funding the construction. However, the majority of equity will be paid by Milton Keynes so the authority will come to own the facility.

The council expects waste minimisation to reduce waste volumes per household in the city, but a spokesman said that with 1,000 new homes being built each year, the population of Milton Keynes is still rising and this is likely to offset any volume reductions through minimisation.

Cambridgeshire MBT

While AmeyCespa has received the go-ahead in Milton Keynes, its only other waste facility, the Waterbeach MBT plant in Cambridgeshire, remains shut.

A spokeswoman for the company said today (October 230) there was still no timeframe for restarting the plant and waste is still being landfilled. She added: We are awaiting results from an investigation by engineers. (see letsrecycle.com story)

It was only in August this year that AmeyCespa revealed that it had received acceptance for the plant. Speaking in August, Sarah Clover, account director at AmeyCespa, said: We have worked closely in partnership with the county council to provide a facility which can extract as much valuable material as possible from Cambridgeshires waste and minimise the amount sent to landfill. We are delighted that the plant has achieved its full acceptance certificate and look forward to continuing to work with the County Council to increase recycling rates and provide sustainable ways of dealing with the countys waste.

In August Cambridgeshire issued a statement which said: The plants biodegradability performance has been closely scrutinised over recent months, adhering to international quality management procedures, and has proven that it can exceed the expectations set out in the contract. This provided the last key reassurance for the County Council to sign off the full acceptance of the facility this month.

AmeyCespa

AmeyCespa is owned by Spanish multi-national Grupo Ferrovial, Ferrovial, whose other activities include running airports, bought BAA in 2006. It bought Donbarbon, which developed the Waterbeach project, in 2010 and Amey a long-established roads and civils contractor, in 2003.