The arrangement, which could be extended for a further five years, will see Viridor process the residual waste from 1 April 2017.
South Lanarkshire borders the south east of the city of Glasgow – incorporating some of the city’s suburbs. Major towns include East Kilbride, Hamilton and Rutherglen. The area has a population in excess of 300,000 people.
Under the new deal, Viridor will be expected to divert up to 95% of waste from landfill, treating around 80,000 tonnes of municipal refuse per year.
Viridor, which already handles a large percentage of South Lanarkshire’s refuse at its Rigmuir landfill site near Glasgow under an interim arrangement, has yet to confirm publicly with the council its energy recovery plans for the waste under the new contract.
The business is also expected to provide a waste transfer station to handle around 52,000 tonnes of material in the north of the county, which should not be more than ‘15 and a half miles’ from the council’s operating base at Forrest Street, Blantyre, according to a procurement notice issued by the authority earlier this year.
Around 26,000 tonnes of waste which already goes to the council-operated transfer station at Castlehill Industrial Estate in Carluke each year will meanwhile be collected by Viridor and taken to the waste treatment plant.
Procurement
The contract award follows a two-year procurement process that followed a setback to residual waste treatment in the area, after a proposed 25-year contract with Viridor was scrapped in 2012 following legal action from a rival bidder.
Viridor had been named preferred bidder for the deal in September 2011 following a £459 million bid over the contract lifespan. The waste was due to be hauled south to the firm’s EfW facility in Runcorn, Cheshire, which has since become fully operational.
However, Forth-based Levenseat Ltd raised an action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, arguing the requirement to process food waste had been introduced by the Scottish Government after it had submitted its procurement bid. As a result, firms that were already removed from the tendering process had not been given the opportunity to bid for the food waste processing.
Clyde Valley
The contract award further consolidates Viridor’s portfolio in Scotland, having signed a residual waste treatment deal to handle 190,000 tonnes of refuse from five local authorities in May 2016.
The Clyde Valley contract, which was signed by North Lanarkshire council on behalf of East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire and Renfrewshire councils, will see waste sent to the firm’s £22 million refuse-derived fuel (RDF) facility at Bargeddie from December 2019 (see letsrecycle.com story).
RDF produced at the site will then be sent to Viridor’s upcoming Dunbar energy from waste plant in East Lothian – one of the company’s last EfW treatment projects to be commissioned which is due to begin operations later next year.
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