Gloucestershire back in hunt for residual waste facilities

The county council is now inviting waste technology firms to get in touch to discuss what options might be available in the medium or long-term.

It wants to offer a waste treatment contract to build a facility which could handle around 150,000 tonnes of waste per annum.

Two years ago this month, the county called off an attempt to sign either Cory or Shanks to provide mechanical biological treatment facilities to deal with the county's waste. The contract procurement was terminated because offers from the two shortlisted firms were seen as too expensive (see letsrecycle.com story).

Last week, Gloucestershire's waste chiefs said they are now keen to talk to suppliers able to handle an interim contract as well as a long-term deal. The county council believes it could be some years before a long-term solution is available, because of the length of time it takes to procure, plan, construct and commission facilities.

The county's head of waste management Mike Williams explained: “We see this soft market testing as an important process. We are hoping to gain a better understanding of the market, in order to put together an attractive procurement approach to meet the needs of the county, its residents and the waste treatment industry.”

There are seven councils in the county which make up the Gloucestershire Waste Partnership. The county council is the disposal authority and will spearhead the procurement process. There are six collection authorities – Tewkesbury borough, Forest of Dean district, Cotswold district, Gloucestershire city, Stroud district and Cheltenham borough.

No specific treatment technology has been specified by the county council but the council said it wants to hear opinions on:

• Suitable technologies

• Contract length – short, medium and long term

• Flexibility of the solution

• Views on procurement, for example partnerships

• Risk

Merchant 

For the short-term contract, it has said it wants to explore “the use of existing merchant capacity or 'fast to procure and develop' treatment systems that are flexible enough to operate for a short to medium duration”.

Information gathered during soft market testing will be used when Gloucestershire draws up its Residual Municipal Waste Procurement Plan. This will be taken to its cabinet for approval at the end of November.

All Gloucestershire's district authorities currently collect residual waste on a weekly basis, either from a wheeled bin or black sacks.

Each council provides a kerbside recycling round where paper, glass and cans are sorted at the kerbside. Some collect additional materials including plastic bottles, textiles and batteries. Five District Councils have introduced kerbside garden waste collection schemes.

The County council provides five Household Recycling Centres (HRCs) across the county for recyclables, green waste, hazardous waste and residual waste.

A procurement process, separate to the soft market test, is presently underway to secure in-vessel composting facilities around the county. This would process 60,000 tonnes of green waste every year including 30,000 tonnes of food waste.

The soft market testing application can be downloaded from the council's website along with an information leaflet. All forms must be returned by Friday, October 19 2007.