The 26-year contract is supported by 32 million in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits from Defra. It covers the disposal of around 400,000 tonnes a year of household waste collected by the county's seven district councils.
The council had narrowed down contenders to Onyx, Waste Recycling Group, Viridor and Simpro. The two companies left in the running are thought to be Waste Recycling Group and Onyx Environmental.
Due to the sensitive nature of negotiations, Nottinghamshire county council was unable to comment at this time.
Nottinghamshire has a statutory target to recycle 24% of household waste by 2005/06. But as part of applying for PFI support, contract will now set a more challenging target for 2005/06 of 27% recycling.
In reaching this target, Nottinghamshire is keen for the successful bidder to get a materials recycling facility's sorting capacity on line in 2005.
Onyx has invested heavily in MRFs in recent years. To process materials from two of its major waste management contracts, the company invested 1 million expanding a plant in Portsmouth for its Hampshire contract and 2 million for a new MRF in Sheffield.
Waste Recycling Group also runs several facilities for recycling materials. Though Mike Snell, general manager for external affairs at Waste Recycling Group, could not comment on the Nottinghamshire contract, he said: “At the moment we have a number of facilities where we conduct recycling activities of various kinds. We have new facilities at Wigan and Carnaby in Humberside which also include civic amenity sites.”
Nottinghamshire's long term goal for the contract will be to reach a 50% recycling rate and to meet this new facilities for the treatment of residual waste are expected.
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