In the report, entitled ‘Giving the World’s Resources New Life’, the firm sets out its environmental and financial sustainability performance over the past year, as well as future forecasts and targets.
According to the report, Viridor expects its earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to be materially lower for the first half of 2014/15 than the same half-year figure for 2013/14, due to lower revenue per tonne of recycling, as well as the continuing decline of landfill and power generation.
The company currently operates 21 landfill sites across the UK and maintains 27 closed sites.
However, the company is optimistic as it has five EfW plants coming online next year – in Ardley, Exeter, Peterborough, Runcorn and Trident Park – and is as a result expecting its final earnings for the whole of 2014/15 to in fact end up exceeding last year’s total earnings.
And, while the firm is cautious about future material prices, Viridor invested £292 million in recycling and energy recovery infrastructure in 2013/14, including its Crayford MRF, its Skelmersdale polymer recycling facility and £25 million of investment in new glass and polymer reprocessing plants in Scotland and Kent.
It is hoped that this investment will boost its recycling material recovery rate, which fell by 4% to just under 2.5 million tonnes in 2013/14. During the previous year, this figure had risen by 10% to around 2.53 million tonnes.
The report states: “Despite ongoing price volatility for recycled commodities, we broadly maintained the overall volume of material recovered for recycling at 2.5 million tonnes (1.8 million tonnes of this was traded dry recyclates) in 2013/14, while focussing strongly on producing higher quality materials.”
Also highlighted in the report is Viridor’s work on resource risks as part of the Circular Economy Task Force – a group of eight major businesses led by the Green Alliance – through which it has looked at the “highly volatile” rise in prices of resources over the last decade.
Environment
Regarding environmental performance, the company believes it is on track to meet its aims by 2020 to double its recycling rate to 70%, double its renewable energy generation to 300MW and to reduce its operational carbon footprint by 35% from a 2010/11 baseline.
Overall, the report suggests a focus on energy recovery, with a total of seven new Viridor EfW plants in construction and commissioning, and five AD plants now operational.
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But, with this focus and continued move away from landfill, the firm acknowledges that energy generation (electricity and heat) “will soon become one of the main elements of our carbon footprint”.
Community
According to the report, 301 projects were awarded Viridor credits through the Landfill Communities Fund in 2013/14, with funding from the firm totalling £13.2 million.
In addition, the firm’s 10 education and visitor centres across the UK welcomed nearly 14,000 visitors from schools, colleges and community groups last year – although this has dropped from the near 16,000 visitors the previous year.
Commenting on the report, Viridor chief executive, Ian McAulay, said: “We believe it’s time to throw away the old thinking about waste and recognise its real value as a resource, as explained in our report. This is therefore an important document for Viridor, showing how we measure our progress against clear performance targets, setting out our sustainability and resilience strategy, and helping us to demonstrate to our customers, partners and stakeholders our work towards wider economic, social and environmental sustainability.”
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