Thurrock ‘let down’ as Suez closes Nordic MRF

The move has hit Essex-based Thurrock council, a MRF customer which yesterday started redirecting recyclables from Tilbury to Bywaters’ materials recycling facility in Canning Town, East London.

Nordic was acquired by Suez Enivronnement – then SITA UK – for an undisclosed sum in 2014. This afternoon, a spokeswoman for Suez confirmed the directors of its subsidiary Nordic Recycling had started an insolvency process due to ‘poor trading conditions’ and that the MRF was no longer accepting waste.

Thurrock council originally awarded a seven-year contract for the sorting and treatment of its mixed dry recycables to Nordic Recycling in 2010.

Thurrock claims that Suez had insisted its contract would be unaffected by the acquisition. At the time, the council was paying £14.52 per tonne on recyclable material processed through the contract.

‘Urgent’

Despite this, last month Suez requested an ‘urgent meeting’ to discuss the future operation of the Tilbury site, at which Thurrock was told its materials were being rejected from the MRF due to contamination, according to the council.

Under the contract, a contamination rise above 8% means recyclables can be charged at £92.68 per tonne – meaning an average load costing £116 to process would rise significantly to £741. The council regularly delivers up to eight loads per day.

As a result the council said it ‘acted decisively’ to drive down contamination rates below the 8% threshold dictated in the contract.

However, the council argues Suez continued with plans to close operations at Tilbury and offered the council the option to use its Barking MRF for a much higher price of £61 per tonne. In light of the price hike, Thurrock has negotiated a lower, £55 per tonne rate with Bywaters to send material to its facility in Canning Town.

‘Let down’

Councillor Gerard Rice, Thurrock council’s portfolio holder for environment, said the council felt ‘let down’ by Suez. He explained that Bywaters would accept the same commingled recyclables as Tilbury, meaning residents in the borough would not have to learn a new collection system.

However, he added that collections would now start earlier to avoid the London traffic, and that the council would also be forced to cancel its pilot textile recycling scheme, as the Bywaters plant would not be able to accept the material at ‘such short notice’.

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He continued that the council would look at how it could recoup the price difference it will now have to pay to send materials to East London.

He said: “Part of the Bywaters deal is that they accept the same commingled one-bin recycling as Tilbury, so our residents do not have to learn a new system. Unfortunately, because we now have to take the recycling to Canning Town, our collections will now start from 6am – so the trips into London will avoid the major traffic problems.”

Reluctant

A spokeswoman for Suez said: “On Friday the directors of Nordic Recycling Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of SITA UK Limited, reluctantly took steps to put the company into an insolvency process as a result of poor trading conditions. They are now working with an insolvency practitioner to bring about an orderly shutdown of the company and will comment further in due course.”

The spokeswoman confirmed that the Nordic MRF has now closed, but Suez’s RDF production operation at Tilbury had not been affected.

UPDATE (29/07/15)

Bywaters has today welcomed its new 18-month contract with Thurrock council for the processing of mixed dry recyclables.

Craig Gregory, associate director at Bywaters, said: “We are very excited to be working in partnership with Thurrock council in driving down contaminated materials and increasing their recycling volumes ensuring they achieve a long-term sustainable solution for their residents. Whilst the industry faces many challenges, it is refreshing to be working with a like-minded partner.”

The contract is expected to run from now until April 2017. There will be approximately 18,000 tonnes of material that will be processed in that time, at the Bywaters £7 million material recycling facility based in Bow, East London.