Viridor signs 250 million Glasgow contract

Waste management firm Viridor has signed a 254 million waste treatment services contract with Glasgow city council, which will run for 25 years.

The completion of the contract, which will require the firm to treat between 175,000 and 200,000 tonnes of waste per year, was announced by Viridors parent company Pennon today (July 23).

Glasgow city council confirmed that the deal had been signed, but said it would not be commenting further at this stage.

As part of the deal, Viridor will be responsible for financing the regeneration of a council-owned waste transfer station at Polmadie in the south of the city into a Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre for the treatment of the citys waste.

The site will house a recycling plant for domestic glass, plastics, paper, cardboard and metals, mechanical biological treatment, anaerobic digestion and gasification facilities. Redevelopment of the Polmadie site is expected to cost around 154 million.

Viridor chief executive Colin Drummond, said: The Glasgow Renewable Energy and Recycling Centre will make a major contribution to Scotlands ambitious Zero Waste Plan. It is a further important step in the roll out of Viridors service contract pipeline and represents a key part of Viridors growth strategy in Scotland.

The new plants will have a combined gross electrical power generation capacity of 15MW and Viridor will work with its partner, Glasgow city council, to maximise heat recovery opportunities. The plants are due to come on stream in early 2016. At that time, taking account of existing plants and those under construction plus the Glasgow Centre, Viridor expects to have around 1.8m tonnes of thermal treatment capacity and over 250MW of renewable energy capacity.

Viridor anticipates that it will divert around 90% of the waste generated in the city from landfill, with the council expected to save around 254 million over the life of the deal, increasing its recycling rate by 10.8%.

Energy-from-waste facilities built under the contract will have the capacity to supply enough energy to power around 16-22,000 homes. The contract is expected to create more than 250 jobs – 175 in construction and 75 during the service period, with over 50 of these at the Polmadie site.

Consultation

On Thursday (July 19), Viridor launched an online consultation into the plans to develop the proposed waste site at Polmadie to seek views and answer questions from local residents about the proposals, following on from a 12-week public exhibition of the plans.

Steven Don, Scottish regional manager for Viridor, said: Our online consultation is a further opportunity for members of the public to learn more and ask questions about plans for delivering next generation green infrastructure to help transform waste in Glasgow, regenerating the long-established site at Polmadie.

The public exhibitions, held in partnership with Glasgow city council, saw a broad range of community councils, groups and residents take advantage of the chance to find out more and we were encouraged by the level of interest, breadth of questions and positive reception to the jobs and related benefits that will come with this investment.

Our online event offers another chance for residents to find out more without leaving the comfort of their living room during this two hour session. Even after that, information including a project video featuring actor Stephen Purdon is available 24/7 on the project website at www.transformingwasteinglasgow.com.

If planning consent is received, the new facilities are expected to come online in 2016.

Viridor was put forward as the preferred bidder for the Glasgow contract by the councils procurement project board at an executive committee meeting in December 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story), ending a two-year procurement process which saw it fight off competition from Biffa, Glasgow Renewables and 3SE – a consortium made up of Scottish and Southern Energy and waste firm Shanks.