Wrexham signs 25-year PFI waste contract

The agreement between Wrexham county borough council and waste firm Waste Recycling Group will also include provision of a new composting facility.

The deal is expected to receive 40m funding support from the Welsh Assembly Government under the Private Finance Initiative.

Waste Recycling Group's northern operations director, Steve Jennings (left), with Aled Roberts, the leader of Wrexham Council

The 17 million composting and materials recycling facility has yet to receive planning permission, but if it gets the go-ahead, it is expected to open for business in 2009.

“Landmark”


Wrexham Ccouncil leader Aled Roberts said: “This is a landmark day in Wrexham and indeed the whole of North Wales as a solution is finally found for disposing of the majority of household waste without the unsustainable use of landfill or any other environmentally unacceptable method.

“Without the co-operation of residents we would not have achieved our current rates of 31%. To move on even further we accept that residents cannot do any more on their own and therefore this facility is essential for Wrexham to establish itself as a lead player in recycling.”

Jim Meredith, chief executive of Spanish-owned WRG said: “We are delighted to have successfully concluded negotiations with Wrexham council on this important project, and we are looking forward to working with the people of Wrexham in providing them with a sustainable and high quality waste and resource management service over the next 25 years.”

“The finalising of this contract is further demonstration of WRG’s ability to deliver major waste infrastructure requirements under the PFI procurement system. We are fully focused on providing UK local authorities with the most appropriate waste treatment technologies and facilities, which are tried and tested to allow them to meet forthcoming challenging UK and EU targets.”

Wrexham council believes the new plant will help it reach its aims of recycling 40% of its waste by 2010. In 2005/06 – the most recent figures – it recycled 18.4%.

Today's agreement brings to a head 10 years of efforts to bring a recycling plant to the area. A gasification and pyrolysis facility to create a refuse derived fuel, was abandoned after it faced massive local opposition.

And in 2003, plans by Portuguese-owned firm HLC, to replace the incinerator with another technology came to a dead end when the plant site was sold (see letsrecycle.com story).