Essex secures disposal routes for residual waste

Valued at between £73-200 million, the contract is split into five lots – and has been awarded to a number of waste management companies.

These companies include Cory Environmental, Seneca Environmental Solutions, Suez recycling and recovery UK, Veolia, Viridor Waste Management, James Waste Management and Hadleigh Salvage & Recycling [list updated: 5 December].

Contract

Lot 1 is for the disposal only of RDF and/or MSW. It is estimated that this will consist of around 200 000 tonnes per annum based on “current arising”.

The four other lots are contingency arrangements and include: disposal only of MSW; disposal only of bulky waste; transfer and disposal of direct-delivered waste; and transfer and haulage of direct-delivered waste.

In the tendering document, ECC and Southend said they are unable to guarantee which waste stream will be provided on any specific day. And, the councils said that the contractor will need to provide a solution capable of receiving either material.

Obligation

This week, councillor Simon Walsh, Essex county council cabinet member for environment and waste, told letsrecycle.com that the contract ensures ECC is able to meet its statutory obligation in coming years.

“These service orders will secure an outlet for the RDF produced. In addition, the service orders awarded provide contingency arrangements should the MBT facility become unavailable at any time during its commissioning period, for example during periods of maintenance or other operational changes.”

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Simon Walsh
Essex county council

He continued: “Our treatment route for residual waste is via the MBT facility in Basildon, where municipal solid waste is treated. This process produces a refuse derived fuel which the authority needs to dispose of.”

Cllr Walsh also emphasised that the contracts allowed the councils some flexibility.

He said: “These service orders will secure an outlet for the RDF produced. In addition, the service orders awarded provide contingency arrangements should the MBT facility become unavailable at any time during its commissioning period, for example during periods of maintenance or other operational changes. These service orders also provide a treatment route for any waste types the MBT is not designed to treat.”

Basildon MBT

Residual waste generated by the county has been managed under a 25-year PFI waste treatment arrangement with Spanish-owned consortium Urbaser Balfour Beatty – UBB Waste (Essex) – in 2012, worth over £919 million across its lifespan (see letsrecycle.com story).

The contract was also signed by the unitary Southend borough council as part of the Essex Waste Partnership.

However, the plant has faced a number of setbacks. In January letsrecycle.com reported that Basildon MBT was only generating around half of the estimated 180,000-220,000 tonnes per year output that was expected annually through the UBB contract.

In March, Essex said that it was ‘urgently’ procuring a short-term refuse disposal contract to avoid a waste treatment capacity gap of up to 255,000 tonnes (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, in June the authority confirmed that preliminary steps towards a court hearing were underway over the MBT plant built by Urbaser Balfour Beatty under a long term waste contract for Essex (see letsrecycle.com story).

The MBT facility – which is currently in its commissioning phases – accepted over 265,000 tonnes of residual waste in the last 12 months, Essex said this week.