Oxfordshire County Council Signs Residual Waste Treatment Partnership Contract with Viridor
Posted 11 Mar 2011
Yesterday (10 March), Oxfordshire County Council signed a Public Private Partnership (PPP) contract with Viridor to treat the county’s residual waste for the next 25 years and help the council meet its statutory obligations under the EU Landfill Directive and the UK Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme (LATS).
Viridor, one of the UK’s leading recycling, waste management and renewable energy companies will build and operate a state-of-the-art Energy from Waste (EfW) facility at its existing landfill and recycling site in Ardley, north Oxfordshire, which will have a capacity to process up to 300,000 tonnes of residual waste.
Viridor’s £205 million investment will create benefits for the local economy – particularly important in the current economic environment – including the creation of around 40 permanent jobs and many more during construction.
Wider environmental benefits include the landfill diversion of up to 95 percent of waste delivered to the facility and the generation of up to 25MW of electricity. Most will be supplied to the National Grid – enough to meet the energy consumption needs of over 35,000 homes.
Ian Hudspeth, Oxfordshire County Council's Cabinet Member for Growth and Infrastructure, said: "There is a strong and clear need for a facility to provide an alternative to landfill to dispose of Oxfordshire's non-recyclable waste.
“Once built, the energy recovery facility at Ardley will result in the diversion of at least 95% of Oxfordshire’s municipal waste from landfill and provide electricity for many local homes. It will also save taxpayers millions of pounds every year by avoiding landfill tax and fines.
"Together with our continued good performance in reducing waste and increasing recycling and composting, this will achieve virtually zero municipal waste to landfill in Oxfordshire.”
Viridor’s managing director Mike Hellings said: "This first-class project responds to the clear and urgent need to reduce reliance on landfill disposal while increasing production of energy from non-renewable fuels. It will complement the already high levels of recycling in the county as well as provide a cost-effective waste treatment solution. .
“We all look forward to starting work on the preparation for construction and to delivering a high quality treatment facility and service for the residents of Oxfordshire”.
Energy from Waste is a well established technology which is safe, robust and cost-effective. There are already 429 EfW operational plants in Europe, providing effective diversion of waste from landfill and an alternative to fossil-fuel electricity generation.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |