Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Executive has said it ‘expects’ to endorse an ‘officer recommendation’ to appoint waste management company FCC Environment (UK) Ltd as the preferred bidder for the authority’s residual waste contract.
Under the eight-year contract – set to start in April 2014 – FCC Environment UK, a subsidiary of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas S.A. (FCC), would collect residual waste to be processed at Multi Fuel Energy Ltd’s Ferrybridge energy-from-waste (EfW) incineration facility (currently under construction).
All residual waste will continue to be sent to landfill until a new local delivery point is constructed in Ellesmere Port. This will eventually handle all the authority’s non-recyclable waste - shredding it to produce a refuse-derived fuel (once metals have been removed for recycling), which will then be transported to the EfW plant.
The council has reportedly chosen this option as it offers value for money (value not disclosed) as using ‘spare capacity in an energy-from-waste facility already under construction… will not require further new facilities to be built locally’. Mutli Fuel Energy is a joint venture between SSE plc and Wheelabrator Technologies Inc.
Speaking of the recommendation, 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 carbon dioxide 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 council has been asked to formally endorse the recommendation to support FCC Environment, over the other remaining bidder, Viridor Waste Management, at a meeting next week (6 November).
Read more about waste management in Cheshire West and Chester.
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