The Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority has appointed a preferred bidder for its 25-year, £3bn waste services contract.
Viridor Waste Management and Laing Roads will invest more than £300M in new infrastructure to maximise recycling and composting, and produce energy from any remaining waste. The conurbation generates 1.4Mt of municipal waste each year, and the contract is thought to be the largest of its kind in Western Europe. The authority said it chose Viridor/Laing because the consortium’s proposal was ‘stronger in a number of key areas’, especially regarding its ‘residual’ waste solution.
Cllr Neil Swannick, chair of the GMWDA, said: ‘[Viridor/Laing] have brought forward a technical solution which is a good fit with our agreed waste-management strategy. ‘There are good proposals for waste minimisation and ensuring 50% of waste is recycled or composted. ‘The “residual” waste solution, involving a combination of mechanical biological treatment, anaerobic digestion and the production of a stable fuel for power generation, is also excellent news.’ He said the authority also aimed to see a ‘combined heat and power’ power-generation solution for the fuel created from residual waste, which uses the steam as well as electricity that can be generated by fuel use.
The announcement was welcomed by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. John Burns, its director of the waste implementation programme, said: ‘This is good new for UK plc. A high-quality environmental solution in Greater Manchester is an essential contribution to the delivery of national climate change, waste and energy policies.’
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