Commenting on the long-list, the council's deputy leader, Nick Rushton, said: “We're delighted to have a list of eight experienced waste treatment companies interested in developing our facility.
We want to find the best process to treat waste but we've made no decision on the technology and no decision on a site
Nick Rushton, Leicestershire county council deputy leader
“We already divert 162,000 tonnes of materials away from landfill, through recycling and composting. We want to find the best process to treat waste, but we've made no decision on the technology and no decision on a site,” he added.
The eight bidders long-listed for the award are: High Wycombe-based waste management firm Biffa; US energy-from-waste firm Covanta; a consortium of cement company Lafarge and services firm Interserve; Buckinghamshire-based waste and recycling company Shanks; French-owned waste management firm SITA UK; a joint-bid between utilities company United Utilities and equity investors John Laing; French-owned waste company Veolia; and, Spanish-owned WRG Ltd.
PFI
Leicestershire received £86.6 million in PFI funding for the project in October 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story), and is looking to develop the facility at the same time as it targets reaching a 58% recycling and composting rate by 2017.
While it has not specified the technology or site that the plant will use, the council has listed autoclave, energy-from-waste, gasification, mechanical biological treatment and pyrolysis as among the options it could consider.
And, it has two sites that it will be making available to the successful bidder if they require – the Whetstone waste site and a location at the Interlink Business Park in Bardon.
The next-steps for the contract will involve the eight bidders being asked to submit initial proposals, detailing how they plan to treat the council's residual waste if awarded the deal.
Leicestershire has said that it plans to name the successful bidder and achieve financial close in late 2010 after a competitive dialogue bidding process, and aims to have the plant up-and-running by April 2015.
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