Wiltshire county council turns to MBT to avoid landfill

The facility will be built at Brook Lane in Westbury by waste contractor Hills Group, although details are yet to be finalised, as part of two 25-year contracts.

Wiltshire council's cabinet has given the green light to tenders from the Marlborough-based company, with minor details to be ironed out before a contract is signed.

” These projects represent a bold move which will keep Wiltshire amongst the leaders in moving away from landfill“
– Toby Sturgis, Wiltshire council
Hills Group will build and run the plant, as well as dealing with the transportation for the facility. The company already has a hefty portfolio in Wiltshire, including a composting facility at Compton Bassett and a 20-year contract to dispose of waste from the county council and Swindon borough council.

Around 60,000 tonnes of household waste will be sent to the 12 million plant each year, which is to be up and running from 2008. Italian company Entsorga is set to provide the technology for the plant.

Waste sent to the plant will be turned into a concentrated organic called solid recovered fuel. Up to 30,000 tonnes of the fuel at the plant will be transported to the nearby Lafarge cement works, where it will be used as an alternative fuel for the cement-making process.

Wiltshire is currently recycling around 90,000 tonnes of waste per annum, 32% of its waste. The rest of its waste is sent to landfill at Compton Basset near Calne. But by 2010 the council will be limited to sending no more than 93,158 tonnes of waste to landfill, under the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme.

Colnbrook


As well as the proposed MBT facility, a further 50,000 tonnes of waste will be sent to the new incinerator being built at Colnbrook near Slough. Hills Group is also set to be awarded the contract for the transportation of waste from Wiltshire to the facility.

The Colnbrook incinerator is currently being built for Lakeside Energy from Waste – a subsidiary of Grundon and Viridor set up to build, run and own the facility. Wiltshire county council is to begin sending waste to the 400,000 tonnes per annum plant in 2008.

The council estimates that over 25 years the two contracts would be worth around 300 million in total, split evenly between the two. Andy Conn, waste services manager, said: “This figure is just an estimate, but we believe this is the cost over the complete length of the two contracts.”

Toby Sturgis, spokesman for the council, said: “We are already doing really well in achieving high recycling rates but these projects will take us a major step into the future, not just in reducing landfill but in drawing value from our waste and reducing the consumption of valuable fossil fuels.

“These projects represent a bold move which will keep Wiltshire amongst the leaders in moving away from landfill. We have so far spent more than a year undertaking a rigorous procurement process to make sure we get the right services at the right cost for Wiltshire,” he added.