Consortium will operate rail transfer and energy-from-waste facilities in northern England.
Sita Sembcorp UK, a consortium led by SITA UK, a subsidiary of France’s Suez Environnement, has been selected as the preferred bidder for a resource recovery contract worth between £1.18 billion to £1.4 billion ($1.8 billlion to $2.14 billion). The contract runs for 30 years with the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority in northern England. The other members of the Sita Sembcorp consortium include Sembcorp Utilities UK and I-Environment, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan’s Itochu Corp.
The contract will manage more than 430,000 metric tons of residual household waste each year from the county of Merseyside and the borough of Halton. The consortium will design, construct, finance and operate two permitted facilities: a rail-loading waste transfer station in Merseyside and a purpose-built energy-from-waste (EfW) facility in Teesside. Both facilities are expected to be operational by 2016.
The rail loading waste transfer station will be developed at an existing warehouse in Knowsley Industrial Estate. From there, waste will be transported to the 450,000 metric tons per year EfW facility, which will be developed on a rail linked site in Teesside.
Sita Sembcorp expects the EfW facility to generate electricity for around 63,000 homes and says it has the potential to provide steam to adjacent business customers. In total, the consortium expects more than 90 percent of the contract waste managed will be diverted from landfill and used to produce energy.
“This is great news for Merseyside, for the environment and for new jobs,” says David Palmer-Jones, CEO of SITA UK. “We are delighted to be selected as preferred bidder for this major contract in Merseyside.”
Jean-Louis Chaussade, CEO of Suez Environnement, says, “We are delighted that the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority has selected the SITA Sembcorp UK consortium as preferred bidder for this important contract. This new contract fits well with Suez Environnement’s policy to develop new waste recovery facilities and fits with the UK’s government aspiration to reduce the amount of waste going landfill.”