Member Article

Cheshire waste contract set to be awarded

Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Executive is set to appoint FCC Environment (UK) Ltd as the preferred bidder for the authority’s contract to manage non-recyclable waste.

The new eight-year contract, which will build on the borough’s successful recycling figures of 59 per cent, would see waste that cannot be recycled used to generate electricity rather than being disposed of in landfill.

Under the proposals, which will start in April 2014, all residual waste would continue to be sent to the current landfill sites for the first part of the year, whilst a new local delivery point is constructed in Ellesmere Port.

Cheshire West’s non-recyclable waste would then be sent to a modern energy-from-waste facility, already under construction in Ferrybridge, and used to generate energy.

Members of the Council’s Executive will be asked to formally endorse the recommendation when they meet next week.

Councillor Lynn Riley, Executive Member for Localities, said: “Cheshire West and Chester Council has continued to invest in waste reduction, reuse and recycling - seeing the amount of non-recyclable waste it sends to landfill steadily decrease from 95,500 tonnes in 2009/10 to 67,200 tonnes in 2012/13.

“Sending waste to landfill generates significant greenhouse gas and diverting our waste to create energy will see a massive carbon emission reduction equivalent to around 13,600 tonnes of CO2 per year compared to current arrangements.

“Under the new contract we as an authority only pay for the waste we deliver, we would not have to provide a minimum annual tonnage. This continues to incentivise us all to continue to reduce, reuse and recycle waste.”

The new enclosed delivery point at Ellesmere Port will handle all the Authority’s non-recyclable waste - shredding it to produce a refuse-derived fuel once metals will be removed for recycling.

This will then be transported to the energy-from-waste plant. By using spare capacity in an energy-from-waste facility already under construction, the Authority will not require further new facilities to be built locally.

FCC Environment (UK) Limited is a waste management company with its headquarters in Northampton. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas. It operates more than 200 sites across the UK.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .