Two waste management and recycling companies are competing for Windsor and Maidenhead's long-term residual municipal waste treatment contract, letsrecycle.com can reveal.
Veolia and Covanta were named alongside organics recycling specialist TEG Group in a Major Projects Update issued to members of the council – although TEG has confirmed today that it is no longer in the running for the organics part of the contract.
According to a notice placed in the Official Journal of the European Union in October 2008 by the local authority, the contract will cover around 50,000 tonnes of municipal waste each year and run to 2037, although the council states that the need to build facilities could potentially change the contract length.
The contract is split into two lots, the first covering 15,000 to 20,000 tonnes of organic residual waste each year and a second for 30,000 to 35,000 tonnes of non-organic residual waste arising annually in the Berkshire local authority.
Update
A project update for the contract given in March 2009 stated that Dorset-based New Earth Solutions and Verdia Horticulture (which is a joint venture between TEG and Glendale Recycling) were bidding for the first lot, while Veolia, Covanta, Hills Waste Management, Waste Recycling Group and Grundon Waste Management were bidding for both lots.
Award of the deal is intended to help cut the cost of the council's waste disposal – which costs it around £3 million each year. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is a unitary authority, meaning it handles both municipal waste collection and disposal functions.
The council intends to award the contract to a preferred bidder in 2012.
Interest
Over the past year, Conservative-controlled Windsor and Maidenhead council has become a political darling since adopting the RecycleBank rewards recycling scheme (see letsrecycle.com story).
The introduction of the incentive scheme has attracted a large degree of mainstream media attention and is carried out in partnership with the council's existing waste collection contractor Veolia, which is also vying for the municipal waste treatment and disposal contract.
It is unclear what treatment capacity Covanta would be using for the municipal waste if its bid proved successful. The American firm currently has a number of large-scale energy-from-waste facilities at various stages of the planning process but has no operating capacity in the UK.
One source said that it is believed that the company would make use of surrounding capacity from rival companies until it had developed its own infrastructure. Covanta could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.
Terry Gould, head of public protection at the council, told letsrecycle.com: “We are talking, it is subject to agreeing suitable terms of the contract and heads of terms. We will select a preferred bidder and we are currently looking to dot all the Is and cross all the Ts.”
Register for free to comment