Preferred bidder named for North Yorks waste PFI

A consortium between services company Amey and Spanish waste firm Cespa was yesterday (June 29) named as preferred bidder for the multi-million pound PFI-funded waste treatment contract being jointly procured by North Yorkshire county council and City of York council.

The award of preferred bidder status to the partnership, which is known as AmeyCespa and brings together two subsidiaries of Spanish firm Ferrioval, comes almost 18 months after the councils had originally hoped to make the announcement, after they acknowledged in October 2009 that progress on the procurement had been affected by the economic slowdown (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, with yesterday's announcement, which sees the other remaining contender – a joint bid from Earth Tech and Skanska – lose out, the councils and preferred bidder have now outlined detailed plans for moving forward with the contract. The contract is expected to deal with around 320,000 tonnes of waste per annum.

The preferred bidder and the councils have revealed that the project is set to be developed at the Allerton quarry and landfill site, near Harrogate, and will use mechanical sorting technology to reclaim around 20,000 tonnes-a-year of recyclables from the residual waste.

This will include the extraction of around 40,000 tonnes-a-year of food and organic waste to be turned into energy using anaerobic digestion.

And, the remaining waste will be turned into energy using energy-from-waste incineration, with the plant expected to produce 24 megawatts of electricity – with the residue from this process being used to create at least 50,000 tonnes-a-year of construction aggregates.

The plant is principally expected to deal with household residual waste from the two local authorities, but could also handle some from the commercial waste stream.

Cost savings

The councils claimed that developing the ‘Allerton Waste Recovery Park' facility would cost them £320 million less over the 25-year length of the PFI contract than the projected £1.8 billion cost of continuing to landfill their residual waste, as well as helping them to reach their target of recycling 50% of household waste by 2020.

Commenting on the procurement process, Bill Woolley, director of city strategy for City of York council, said: “Evaluating the tenders received for this contract has been a very long and careful process with set evaluation criteria to achieve a sustainable waste management solution which is both affordable and environmentally acceptable.”

The councils now plan to run a consultation exercise with the public and stakeholders before asking councillors from both local authorities to approve the award of the contract in the autumn.

Allerton Waste Recovery Park

AmeyCespa is then expected to submit a planning application for the facility, with the aim of getting the Allerton Waste Recovery Park up-and-running in 2014.

Bill Jarvis, director for the consortium's Allerton Waste Recovery Park project, said: “We look forward to working with City of York and North Yorkshire county councils and local community to provide a resource recovery facility fit for the 21st century.

“The facility we are proposing will not only save money by making maximum use of waste but we believe it is the most flexible and sustainable solution possible for the local area. The technology has been designed so it can be adapted to meet future demands for new recyclable materials or changes in waste composition,” he added.