The deal with Viridor means it is unclear what the future holds for the solid recovered fuel (SRF) facility operated by the council-owned company Public Power Solutions (PPS), where Swindon’s residual waste is currently sent for processing .
PPS said in its 2020/21 financial results that it would need to bid for the work, despite holding a contract with the council until 2045.
It now appears Viridor has pipped the company to the major deal.
While no confirmation of the destination for the waste has been revealed, Viridor has suitable plants in Avonmouth and Oxfordshire and with Grundon at Colnbrook.
Tender
Swindon tendered for the contract in August 2021, where it explained it is required to treat and dispose of around 55,000 tonnes of its own non-recyclable residual waste collected from the kerbside, and from its single household waste recycling centre.
This valued the eight-year contract, with no extension clause, between £45 and £60 million.
The council did say in the tender that it will provide and operate a transfer station facility within Swindon for the duration of the contract and load the waste onto the suppliers’ trailers.
Suppliers were invited to submit tenders for 10,000 tonne per annum lots, between 10,000 and the full 60,000 tonnes.
PPS
Announced in a redacted cabinet meeting on 6 December, the outcome of the tender emerged this week.
It was revealed that there were five bidders, with Viridor Energy Ltd winning, with a bid of £58,334,400.
The volume of the contracted waste will be variable over the term of the contract, with a guarantee of 70% of the full tonnage tendered.
Results
The Viridor award comes just after a month after PPS published its financial results for the 2020/21 financial year, where it said it was “confident” it would win the tender, and also said it was investing in a pelletisation plant.
The results explained that the company had been working with its shareholder, Swindon council, to invest in a pelletisation plant to “significantly reduce disposal costs, open up the UK market, and take the company one-step further towards energy from waste”.
However, the results said after the company had undertaken initial procurement for the pellet solution, the council “made the decision to test the market as part of their end-to-end review of the waste service….The company will be required to respond to this opportunity. PPS remains confident that local treatment and disposals of Swindon’s waste, with further innovation through pellets, will prove the best value solution.”
Swindon council, Viridor and PPS have all been contacted for comment.
SRF
The council has the below video on its website, where it says it “has one of the only waste to fuel or SRF plants in the country”.
Swindon adds on the site that all its black wheelie bin waste “goes through this process which is a less expensive and more environmentally friendly option than landfill or incineration”.
The plant operates by shredding the waste, sorting it, drying it out and then compacting it into bales which can be shipped to the companies in the UK and Europe who “buy the fuel we produce”.
According to Swindon “a significant amount of recyclable materials such as tins, cans and glass bottles, that are put in black wheelie bins instead of being recycled, also get sent to the plant. The plant can remove some of this material but it cannot recycle it properly using this process”.
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