On 19 April 2013, SITA SEMBCORP UK, a consortium led by SITA UK, a subsidiary of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, has been selected as preferred bidder for a waste contract worth £1.18 billion over 30 years with the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority.

In April 2013, SITA UK and Cornwall Council agreed a PFI contract variation worth €1.3 billion of revenue. In the waste sector, this type of partnership was developed to allow British local authorities to develop alternative waste management facilities to landfills.

The other consortium members are Sembcorp Utilities UK and I-Environment, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Itochu Corporation.

The project

The contract is to manage over 430,000 tonnes of residual household waste each year from Merseyside and Halton. It includes the design, build, finance and operation of two key facilities which both have planning permission in place: a rail loading waste transfer station in Merseyside and a new purpose-built energy-from-waste facility in Teesside. Total capital investment for the two facilities will be around £250 million. Both key facilities are expected to be operational by 2016. In total, 75 permanent new jobs will be created by the contract with hundreds more temporary jobs during the construction of the two new facilities.

The rail loading waste transfer station will be developed at an existing rail-linked warehouse in Knowsley Industrial Estate. From here, waste will be transported by rail to the new 450,000 tonnes per year energy-from-waste facility, which will be developed on a rail linked site at Wilton International

In total, over 90 per cent of the contract waste managed by the SITA Sembcorp UK consortium will be diverted from landfill and used to produce energy.

Source: Press Release SITA UK