Waste Management Inc not planning a return to UK

However, the New Hampshire-based company said that its involvement in PFI waste deals did not signify a return to the UK waste sector for its parent company and waste management giant, Waste Management Inc.

Wheelabrator Technologies – which owns and/or operates energy-from-waste facilities across North America – said that it intended to develop its standing in the UK and Europe through partnership working and acquisitions.

A spokesman for the company told letsrecycle.com: “We are currently implementing an overall European strategy of acquisition and new project development. Our initial focus is on the UK, Germany and the Netherlands due to the structure and opportunities within these markets.”

“In the UK market, the EfW market is still evolving, lending itself primarily to partnership and new project development opportunities as opposed to acquisitions.”

The spokesman added that the move represented a return to the UK “only in so much as Wheelabrator is a Waste Management company”.

He said: “Wheelabrator and EfW were never part of Waste Management's involvement in the UK market historically; this is a seen as a growth opportunity for Wheelabrator UK Ltd and there are no plans for the wider involvement of Waste Management Inc.”

Shanks

Wheelabrator established itself in the UK by signing a partnership working agreement with Milton Keynes-based Shanks Group in July 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story). The deal was signed as a joint venture intended to help the mechanical biological treatment specialist Shanks break into the UK's energy-from-waste sector.

As part of the partnership, Wheelabrator has been charged with securing the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) for projects and with operating and managing facilities.

Since signing the deal, the two companies have used the platform to bid for multi-million pound PFI waste contracts put out to tender by Suffolk county council (see letsrecycle.com story), Staffordshire county council (see letsrecycle.com story) and a consortium of 11 Northern Irish councils, known as arc21 (see letsrecycle.com story).

America

Currently processing 21,000 tonnes of solid municipal waste daily in North America, Wheelabrator has 34 years experience in the energy-from-waste sector and was fully bought out by leading North American waste management company Waste Management Inc in 1990.

Waste Management Inc had previously been represented in the UK by a subsidiary called UK Waste Management – with Ian Wakelin, now chief executive of Greenstar UK, as managing director – before it was bought out by Biffa Waste Services.

The company itself was also quick to assert that it had no plans to establish a similar body to UK Waste Management again in the UK, as Lynn Brown, head of communications at Waste Management, said: “I don't think we have any plans at the moment to do work in the UK.”

And, other major North American waste management companies also explained that they had no intention of turning to the UK market despite the presence of companies such as Wheelabrator and another energy-from-waste specialist, Covanta Energy, which recently unveiled ambitious plans to develop a £400 million energy-from-waste facility in South Wales (see letsrecycle.com story).

Republic Services – an amalgamation of Republic Services and Allied Waste Industries – also confirmed that it has no intention of entering the UK market and instead intends to focus on North America.

Will Flower, executive vice president of communications at Republic Services, said: “We are focused on the management of solid waste and recyclables in the US market place with no plans for any operations overseas.”