Norfolk county council’s cabinet last week (4 August) confirmed plans to award the six year contract to Veolia, around a month after the council named them as preferred bidder in late June (see letsrecycle.com story).
This was praised by the UK & Ireland vice-president, Gavin Graveson, who added that the contract will also deliver cost savings of £2 million a year for taxpayers.
“This contract is another significant step as we progress to zero landfill and a carbon zero future in the UK,” he said.
Mr Graveson added: “We are delighted by this decision by Norfolk County Council, and value the opportunity to work in partnership to advance sustainability by making significant carbon and financial savings for residents.”
Contract
Under the terms of the arrangement, waste will be sent to Veolia’s 585,000 tonnes a year capacity Rookery South Energy from Waste (EfW) plant in Bedfordshire, which it runs in a joint venture with Covanta. The plant is due to be fully operational in “late 2021”.
Despite Veolia’s comments on ‘zero landfill’, the county’s current arrangements see Norfolk’s waste primarily going to energy recovery, either in the UK or abroad. Norfolk’s current waste arrangements sees it send around 40,000 tonnes per year to Suez’s Great Blakenham plant. And, in 2015 contracts were awarded for about 160,000 tonnes of waste to be treated via energy recovery in the UK or as refused derived fuel to energy on the continent (see letsrecycle.com story). Contractors include FCC, Frimstone and Seneca.
The new contract with Veolia begins when the current arrangements expire in March 2021.
Contingency
If the plant isn’t online in time, waste will initially be treated at Wheelabrator’s EfW in Kent. And, some Norfolk waste could be landfilled near Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire at Veolia’s Springfield Farm site.
Recycling
Cllr Andy Grant, Norfolk county council’s cabinet member for environment and waste, said: “This new contract will deliver additional recycling and send zero waste direct to landfill, all while delivering better value for money for our residents. More than that, by using rubbish as a fuel for power generation it will help us achieve significant carbon savings and marks an important step in delivering a greener Norfolk.”
“This new contract will deliver additional recycling and send zero waste directly to landfill while delivering better value for money for our residents”
The report which went before the cabinet explained that seven bidders submitted proposals which were evaluated on an 80% cost and 20% quality weighting.
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