The tender was published on 8 September but began in June, and covers the treatment of approximately 6,500 tonnes of material, sourced from household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs) and other waste depots.
Essex was required to make the move following a decision by the Environment Agency last year to ban the landfilling of upholstered seating at HWRCs (see letsrecycle.com story). This meant councils such as Essex who rely on landfill for the majority of waste disposal were worst hit.
With enforcement action due to take place over the summer, Essex launched the tender in April (see letsrecycle.com story), with Indaver bagging the deal.
Under the contract, Indaver will work with Basildon-based Clearaway Recycling, sister company to bulk waste haulier Waste-A-Way Recycling, to treat the material.
Indaver
The deal is also interesting because Indaver is in the process of building an energy from waste (EfW) plant in the area, close to Rivenhall.
The Rivenhall EfW plant is currently under construction and is expected to be operational by 2026. The plant recently obtained planning consent from Essex county council, which has approved Indaver’s bid to remove a planning condition tied to the Rivenhall-based EfW development.
Additionally, the company is also preparing another planning application to the government, which aims to secure a development consent order (DCO) to increase the plant’s consented electrical capacity to 65MWe (see letsrecycle.com story).
This comes amid a hotly anticipated tender in Essex, with several large companies eyeing the contract, where the majority of waste is still landfilled..
Essex first started its tendering process last August (see letsrecycle.com story). However, the tender was unexpectedly cancelled three months later due to “technical issues” which haven’t been specified.
It was then relaunched again in December last year, with the contract value having increased to between £433.5 and £867 million (see letsrecycle.com story).
The most recent developments have seen the council put another pause on the tendering process in May on the basis that “none of the bids submitted in response to the tender were compliant” (see letsrecycle.com story). This was then followed by the council issuing a Prior Information Notice as a request for information “to engage with the market, in the next step of procuring for a residual waste treatment contract” (see letsrecycle.com story).
A consultation is also due soon on the council’s waste strategy, where it is considering a 70% recycling target by 2030, reducing the tonnage which would be required from an EfW plant.
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