The largest-ever waste management contract in the UK, it will run for 25 years providing waste management services for nearly one million households under the mantle of the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority.
” We need a competitive and effective selection process to ensure that we get the very best proposals at a price that local council taxpayers are prepared to pay.“
– Cllr Neil Swannick, GMWDA
The contract will aim to radically reduce the amount of Manchester's household waste sent to landfill, and is likely to engage with new waste treatment technologies, including mechanical biological treatment.
After assessing 10 proposals, the authority has named Onyx, Shanks, SITA, Waste Recycling Group and Viridor as the companies still in the running for the contract. The contract would cover households in the boroughs of Bolton, Bury, Manchester City, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside and Trafford.
Response
Announcing the shortlist, the Authority's chair, Cllr Neil Swannick, said: “We are pleased that the industry has provided an enthusiastic response at this initial stage in the procurement process.
“Waste disposal is a key service for everybody and a sustainable solution is vital for the environment. We need a competitive and effective selection process to ensure that we get the very best proposals at a price that local council taxpayers are prepared to pay,” he added.
Cllr Swannick, who is also executive member for planning and the environment at Manchester city council, said the Authority had gained “considerable assurance” that the successful contract would be a “strong partner” because the five shortlisted companies were “nearly all of the largest waste companies operating in the UK market”.
Consortia
Because of the scale of the work – the contract could be worth upwards of 4 billion if inflation is taken into account – the successful contractor may not be working alone in the contract once it gets going in 2008.
Tim Judson, director of procurement at the Authority, told letsrecycle.com that it was “entirely possible that some of them may end up as consortia”, but that it would depend on how the companies saw the best solution for the contract.
The next stage will see outline proposals from the five companies assessed, with the Authority hoping to cut its shortlist to four companies mid-June. However, Mr Judson said: “It may be that not all five proposals are good enough to go forward – or it may be that all five are. We're not so wedded to the number four, but it is our intention to try and get to four – we don't want to keep companies in the running unnecessarily.”
| Related links: |
Whoever wins the contract will ultimately take on the existing workforce of the Authority-owned waste company Greater Manchester Waste – either acquiring the company outright or by using it as a subcontractor.
The Greater Manchester Waste Authority is aiming to stop the growth in the generation of household waste among its 958,000 households, and with new waste processing infrastructure in place is hoping to raise recycling and composting rates to 50% of household waste.
Subscribe for free