Peterborough City Council has announced Viridor as the recommended preferred bidder to build and operate a new 'energy from waste' facility in the city, which could make sending rubbish to landfills virtually a thing of the past and save taxpayers millions of pounds in the process.

The proposed plant will use heat to turn any waste that can’t be recycled to ash. In doing so, the amount of rubbish needing to be sent to landfill will be reduced by more than 93 per cent. The remaining ash can also be recycled, for example as aggregate for building roads.

The facility will also harness the energy released in the process to generate around 53,000 megawatt hours of electricity, which can be used locally or sold to the National Grid. This is enough electricity to power approximately 15 per cent of the homes in Peterborough for a year and makes a CO2 saving equivalent to taking 2,800 Ford Mondeos off the road. The energy from waste facility is, in effect, a mini waste-fuelled power station.

-- Advertisement --

Peterborough currently produces approximately 90,000 tonnes of waste per year, which is set to increase to 140,000 tonnes by 2040. 43 per cent is currently recycled, with the remaining 50,000 tonnes of ‘black bin’ waste currently sent to landfill.

According to the city council, the current method of sending the city’s waste to landfill is environmentally unsustainable. Landfills are reaching capacity and rotting waste creates methane, a gas that has many times the global warming effect of CO2.

Landfill costs have also risen sharply in recent years, making it an increasingly expensive option. Between 1997 and 2015 the cost of sending a tonne of waste to landfill is set to have increased 10-fold. In 2010/11 the city council spent around £3 million sending waste to landfill at a cost of around £70 per tonne. By 2014/15 the same amount of waste will cost £100 per tonne or £4.60 million - an increase of more than 50 per cent (£1.6 million) in four years.

In order to find a more acceptable solution and avoid sharply rising costs, Peterborough City Council plans to invest around £76 million transforming waste services for the city, including building an energy from waste facility very close to the Peterborough Power Station in the industrial area of Fengate.

Tenders were invited from companies to bid for the contract to build the facility by 2015 and operate it for the following 30 years. Bidders were invited to recommend the most appropriate solution and technology.

The final bidders are Kier and Viridor, two leaders in the waste management sector. After an exhaustive process, including visits to the companies’ operational facilities, the Waste 2020 Project Board has recommended Viridor as preferred bidder to the portfolio holder, Councillor Matthew Lee, Deputy Leader of Peterborough City Council.

(CD/GK)