The waste management firm will handle up to 135,000 tonnes of waste per annum, as part of a 25-year contract that the joint Zero Waste Scotland partners aim to sign in mid-2015.
The FCC Medio Ambiente SA FCC Waste Services (UK) consortium saw off a number of competitors to win the tender, including Urbaser in September 2013 and Viridor (see letsrecycle.com story).
The deal will also see the FCC-led consortium construct, finance and operate an energy from waste facility– with feedstock to be sourced from both Edinburgh and Midlothian councils.
Food waste
The plant is scheduled to begin operations by 2018, and will be located alongside a food waste treatment plant already under construction on the Zero Waste Parc, next to the Millerhill Marshalling Yard in Midloathain.
The food waste plant will be operated by Alauna Renewable Energy, a joint venture between Kelda Water Services and Scottish Water Horizons, which won a contract to treat 200,000 tonnes of food waste per year on behalf of the Edinburgh and Midlothian councils in 2012.
Meanwhile, planning permission in principle has already been granted for the 100,000 tonnes-per-year EfW plant, as well as a 200,000 tonnes-per-year pre-treatment facility.
However, the FCC consortium is expected to apply for detailed planning consent for both facilities, which will involve consultation with the local community.
Targets
It is hoped the project to treat both food and residual waste on the Millerhill site will help both authorities reach Scotland’s recycling target of 70% by 2025 and the country’s landfill diversion target of 95% by 2025.
Councillor Lesley Hinds, environment convener for City of Edinburgh council, welcomed the announcement as a key part of the city’s long term strategy on to drive down landfill waste.
She said: “Our priority is to encourage the public to cut down on waste and to fully engage in recycling. This facility will ensure that any waste remaining after recyclable materials have been separated out will be treated as a resource and no longer disposed of in a landfill site.”
Councillor Jim Bryant, cabinet member for economic development at Midlothian council, added: “FCC’s proposal offers a local solution that will benefit both partner councils equally. I am delighted with the economic benefits and opportunities which the regeneration of this brownfield site presents and I will be particularly keen to see FCC develop a local heat network that can link into some of the other exciting projects that are set to transform this area.”
Projects
The announcement comes as the latest in a spate of energy-from-waste projects to be developed in Scotland, with Viridor on course to deliver its Glasgow recovery centre in 2016 and New Earth Solution’s gasification plant in Galashiels scheduled to begin operations between 2017 and 2019 (see letsrecycle.com story).
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