Artist's impression of Viridor's Trident Park energy-from-waste facility

It has today (1 February) been announced that waste management company, Viridor, has been identified as the provisional preferred bidder for the 25-year South East Wales Prosiect Gwyrdd waste treatment contract.

Veolia Environment Services had also been in the running for the contract, managed by a local authority partnership between Caerphilly Borough County Council, The County Council of the City and County of Cardiff, Monmouthshire County Council, Newport City Council and Vale of Glamorgan Council.

Should the project’s joint committee accept Viridor as the preferred bidder at a meeting on 7 February, the new Trident Park energy-from-waste (EfW) incineration facility in Cardiff will be used to treat around 172,000 tonnes of non-recylable waste produced in the region every year.

It is hoped that the facility will save the five councils £11 million in its first year of operation (compared to current landfill operations) and bring the region in line with the Welsh Government’s ‘Toward Zero Waste’ waste strategy.

Andrew Kerr, Senior Responsible Officer for Prosiect Gwyrdd, said: “To divert waste from landfill has significant environmental benefits and in line with Welsh Government Policy and European Legislation, a solution needs to be developed for waste which cannot be practically recycled or composted.

“The project advertised on a technology neutral basis, with specific emphasis on the need to divert waste from landfill and energy from waste was the only solution proposed to the partnership.

"This partnership will ensure that a significant amount of waste is diverted from landfill, after recycling and composting targets are met so the partner authorities can meet the waste requirements set out in law by the Welsh Government. Public events will be provided to support this announcement and more information will be provided to residents shortly.”

Business Development Director at Viridor, Howard Ellard, said: “After a three-year tendering process, we are delighted to be identified as the provisional preferred bidder. Subject to the decisions of the Partnership Councils, we look forward to working with Prosiect Gwyrdd to finalise the necessary details to allow commencement of this essential service for the project partners and their residents.”

Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) Spokesperson on the Environment, Councillor Neil Rogers, added: “This is an important announcement which signals that significant progress is being made in a key area of Wales’ overall strategy for dealing with household waste.

“Energy-from-waste facilities have an important role to play in preventing waste ending up in landfill, and they offer councils the ability to generate partly renewable energy from the waste that can’t sensibly be recycled or composted.

“While the long term aim is to create a zero waste Wales which is characterised by a more sustainable level of consumerism and use of natural materials, in the medium term we need facilities such as those being developed by Prosiect Gwyrdd to deal with the residual waste that we all help to generate in Wales.”

Committee ‘agreed to limit recycling’

Viridor’s Cardiff facility has been met with controversy since construction started last year, with local groups protesting about its proximity to the city. Cardiff Against the Incinerator group is reportedly now applying to the High Court to stop the incinerator being built near the Splott area of Cardiff.

Viridor have already been 'invited to stop' construction on the facility after apparently beginning work without meeting the 'pre-implementation conditions' attached to its planning permission.

The planning committee has said it will not taken any action until it hears ‘more information’ at the planning meeting next month

Speaking to the BBC, Cardiff Against the Incinerator Chairman, Robert Griffiths, said: "We have already put great pressure, with some success, on Cardiff council to reconsider the whole question of enforcing the planning consent conditions."

Indeed, the group has also alleged that the Gwyrdd committee ‘agreed to limit recycling and composting, to guarantee 35 per cent of waste goes for incineration’, fuelling fears that incinerators could soon be burning recyclable waste to cope with decreasing residual waste rates.

However, a spokesperson for the Gwyrdd Project told Resource that this accusation was 'ridiculous’ and that the contractual measures 'predicate that at least 65 per cent of waste collected from kerbside should be recycled, eventually reaching 80 per cent by end of contract’.

Read more about Prosiect Gwyrdd