Under the terms of the arrangement, waste will be sent to Veolia’s 585,000 tonnes a year capacity Rookery South Energy from Waste (EfW) plant in Bedfordshire, which it runs in a joint venture with Covanta.
The plant is due to be fully operational in “late 2021”.
Norfolk’s current waste arrangements sees it send around 40,000 tonnes per year to Suez’s Great Blakenham plant, while the remaining 140,000 tonnes is landfilled.
Contract
The new contract with Veolia begins when the current arrangements expire in March 2021.
If the plant isn’t online, waste will initially be treated at Wheelabrator’s EfW in Kent, the cabinet report says.
And, some Norfolk waste could be landfilled near Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire at Veolia’s Springfield Farm site.
The report before the cabinet explains: “This facility would also act as a contingency solution during the term of the contract along with Veolia landfill sites at Ockendon Landfill in Essex and/or Springfield Farm Landfill at (sic) Gerrards Cross in Hertfordshire”.
“This deal is a win-win for taxpayers and the environment”
‘Win-win’
Councillor Andy Grant, cabinet member for environment and waste at the council, said: “This deal is a win-win for taxpayers and the environment – saving £2m and 47,000 tonnes of carbon per year, by avoiding the need to dump waste in landfill sites.”
Bids
The report which will go before the cabinet on 6 July, explains that seven bidders submitted proposals which were evaluated on an 80% cost and 20% quality weighting.
The notes add: “Following the evaluation process the outcome is that one solution should be taken forward which is with Veolia Environmental Services (UK) Ltd.
“Veolia’s proposal is to treat all waste at facilities in the United Kingdom and use it as a fuel in incinerators to generate electricity with the potential for heat use as well, and to recover metals and aggregates for recycling.”
Collections
The move comes three months after Norfolk announced the winner of its £230 million collections contract, which was awarded to Serco (see letsrecycle.com story).
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