Prosiect Gwyrrd, a partnership of five South Wales councils, last week (January 30) recommended Viridor as the preferred bidder to process 172,000 tonnes per annum of the partnerships residual waste at the firms Trident Park EfW in Cardiff.
The Trident Park facility, which is currently under construction, will be a merchant facility with the capacity to handle 350,000 tonnes of waste per year and produce 30 megawatts of electricity.
The 25-year contract was put out to tender three years ago by Prosiect Gwyrrd, which is a partnership of Newport, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Monmouthshire and Vale of Glamorgan councils.
Meanwhile, Viridor Peterborough Limited on Friday (February 1) signed a Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract to treat Peterborough city councils residual waste over the next 30 years. The contract is for the development of an EfW facility on the councils existing recycling site in the Fengate industrial area, which will have the capacity to process up to 85,000 tonnes of residual waste per year and generate 7.25mw of electricity.
A Viridor spokesman said the firm was not releasing the Peterborough contract value but the capital investment will be 75 million.
Viridor said it was delighted with the news regarding both the South Wales and Peterborough facilities.
Prosiect Gwyrdd
According to Prosiect Gwyrdd, the 185 million investment by Viridor at Trident Park will generate more than 360 jobs at the peak of construction, as well as training and apprenticeship opportunities and 36 full time jobs in operation.
The facility will also provide a community benefit fund of 50,000 a year to support local projects in the five local authority areas; a visitors centre enabling the public to visit and view the operations; and a community liaison group, made up of residents, elected members and the Environment Agency to engage with the project.
After a three-year tendering process, we are delighted to be identified as the provisional preferred bidder.”
– Viridor’s Howard Ellard on the South Wales deal
Preferred bidder status for the contract cannot be confirmed until it has been recommended by the partnerships joint committee on 7 February and approved by each partnership council at meetings due to be held between 26 February and 6 March 2013.
Commenting on the Prosiect Gwyrdd contract, Viridors business development director Howard Ellard, said: After a three-year tendering process, we are delighted to be identified as the provisional preferred bidder. Subject to the decisions of the partnership councils, we look forward to working with Prosiect Gwyrdd to finalise the necessary details to allow commencement of this essential service for the project partners and their residents.
Wrexam councillor Neil Rogers, spokesperson on the environment, said: This announcement must be seen alongside the huge amount of work that is taking place to deliver the ambitious targets set by Wales national waste strategy, which prioritises the need to increase levels of recycling and composting. Wales is currently the highest recycling nation in the UK, and the year-on-year increase in recycling rates which has been evidenced is already helping to remove a huge amount of material from the waste stream.
He added: While the long term aim is to create a zero waste Wales which is characterised by a more sustainable level of consumerism and use of natural materials, in the medium term we need facilities such as those being developed by Prosiect Gwyrdd to deal with the residual waste that we all help to generate in Wales.
Peterborough
Peterborough currently produces approximately 90,000 tonnes of waste per year, which is set to increase to 140,000 tonnes by 2040. Around 43% is currently recycled, with the remaining 50,000 tonnes of residual waste currently sent to landfill.
According to Peterborough city council, the Fengate facility will be designed to handle this increase and also provide treatment for commercial and industrial waste from Viridors existing operations in the area.
The plant will be built by a joint venture between Babcock & Wilcox Volund and Interserve Construction as the engineering and procurement contractor to Viridor. Capital funding for the project will be provided by the council.
Viridor was named as the preferred bidder for the Peterborough facility in August 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Viridor head of projects Robert Ryan said: We are delighted to have signed this contract with Peterborough city council. Our proposed solution will efficiently complement the councils existing waste prevention and recycling schemes, and will contribute towards its commitment to become the UKs Environment Capital. The plant will also play an essential role in moving towards a greener economy by creating around 25 permanent jobs (including apprenticeship opportunities) and many more during construction. The project represents a further major step in the development of Viridors PPP/EfW pipeline.
Deputy leader of Peterborough city council, Matthew Lee, said: This is an important milestone for Peterborough. It is the day that we committed ourselves to pursuing a better alternative to dealing with our waste than sending it to landfill. We have tackled this issue head-on and have gone for a solution that is better for the environment and significantly better for the taxpayers of the city.
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