The five companies are Biffa, SITA UK, Veolia Environmental Services (formerly Onyx), Viridor and Waste Recycling Group.
”Our action to increase recycling and composting in Greater Manchester…will greatly reduce our dependence on landfill. However, we will continue to need substantial landfill capacity.“
– Cllr Neil Swannick, GMWDA
The Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority has split its search for new waste service providers into a “main” recycling and residual waste treatment contract – backed by the Private Finance Initiative – and a separate landfill contract.
The Authority is also considering a separate contract to handle refuse-derived fuel generated by any new residual waste treatment option.
The landfill contract is described as a “short to medium-term” contract, and from 2008 onwards it should see quantities of waste to be managed diminishing alongside the recycling ambitions of the 4 billion PFI contract.
Three of the companies bidding to run the landfill contract – SITA, Viridor and WRG – are also in the running for the larger PFI recycling contract. Shanks is the other company bidding for the PFI contract (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting on the five bids for the landfill contract, the chair of the Authority, Cllr Neil Swannick, said: “Our action to increase recycling and composting in Greater Manchester and our separate procurement for the bulk of waste management services will greatly reduce our dependence on landfill. However, we will continue to need substantial landfill capacity in the short to medium term.”
Quality
“It is essential that we secure adequate capacity so that we can continue to deliver a high quality waste disposal service and that we do so in a way that minimises the cost increases that are coming through, both as a result of increases in landfill tax and the reducing supply of landfill in the UK,” Cllr Swannick said.
The largest of the six English waste disposal authorities created under the Local Government Act 1985, the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority provides waste disposal services for 958,000 households in Bolton, Bury, Manchester City, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford.
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The Authority has not yet expanded on exactly what is to happen to current local authority-owned waste company Greater Manchester Waste, pending proposals from its PFI contract bidders. The four PFI bidders are to submit their proposals by February 13.
Greater Manchester's waste strategy aims to improve recycling and composting rates to 50% of waste produced, ultimately reaching the Landfill Directive's aim of reducing the amount of biodegradable waste going to landfill to 35% of the amount sent to landfill in 1995 before 2020.
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