West Sussex County Council has selected Biffa as the preferred bidder for a £1bn, 25-year waste disposal contract to reduce landfill by 80% through mechanical biological treatment (MBT).

The council has opted for a ‘clean and efficient’ process to turn non-recycled waste into energy, including fuel for local buses and refuse-collection vehicles.

Biffa will develop an MBT facility to treat around 31% of the waste through anaerobic digestion, creating
a compost-like output and fuel gases for the generation of electricity.

A further 3% will comprise metals that will be separated and sent for recycling in the UK. Around 46% will be turned into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and used to produce electricity, and the remaining 20% will be sent to landfill.

The plant will be located at Biffa’s current landfill site in Warnham, near Horsham.

If Biffa is unable to secure long-term sustainable markets for these fuels, it will be required to manage an advanced, non-incineration thermal-treatment system to produce electricity and heat.

Louise Goldsmith, cabinet member for finance and resources, said the council recognised the burden on taxpayers, but the Government refused to provide any help in meeting the cost of the contract.

‘First, it denied West Sussex access to public-finance initiative funding, then it failed to deliver its promise to give back to local authorities landfill tax money, which they could have invested in alternative technologies.’

But she said the contract still represented ‘a good deal for taxpayers’ because, over its lifetime, it would save the council more than £300M when compared with the cost of sending waste to landfill.

Derek Whittington, council cabinet member for strategic planning and highways, said: ‘We firmly believe the end result will be a plant using the very latest technology that will not only be clean and efficient, but will ensure waste is turned into a valuable resource which benefits the whole community.’