Viridor Peterborough Limited, a subsidiary of the Pennon Group Plc, has signed a Public Private Partnership contract with Peterborough City Council (PCC) that will see it treat the council’s waste for the next 30 years.

Under the contract, Viridor will construct and operate an 85,0000 energy-from-waste (EfW) plant at PCC’s recycling site in the Fengate industrial area which will burn ‘black bag’ waste to create power.

The facilty, which was granted planning permission last month, will be able to process up to 85,000 tonnes of residual waste per year and will have a net electrical power generation capability of 7.25MW, enough to power about 15 per cent of homes in Peterborough.

Although Peterborough’s residual household waste output stood at around 43,000 tonnes last year, Viridor has said that the council expects this will increase to 140,000 tonnes by 2040 due to population growth. As such, Viridor has said that the facility has been designed to ‘handle any changes in waste taking place over time’, and will treat both commercial and industrial waste.

Currently, 43 per cent of waste is recycled in Peterborough, but it is claimed the incinerator will divert roughly 94 per cent of waste from landfill – with ash collected for the incinerator going to landfill and for use in road aggregate.

Babcock & Wilcox Volund and Interserve Construction, the engineering and procurement contractor to Viridor, will construct the facility with the £75 million funding needed for the project coming from the council. It is expected to be finished by 2015.

'Important milestone for Peterborough'

Viridor’s Head of Projects, Robert Ryan commented: “We are delighted to have signed this contract with Peterborough City Council. Our proposed solution will efficiently complement the council’s existing waste prevention and recycling schemes, and will contribute towards its commitment to become the UK’s Environment Capital. The plant will also play an essential role in moving towards a greener economy by creating around 25 permanent jobs (including apprenticeship opportunities) and many more during construction. The project represents a further major step in the development of Viridor’s PPP/EfW pipeline.”

Councillor Matthew Lee, Deputy Leader of Peterborough City Council, added: ”This is an important milestone for Peterborough. It is the day that we committed ourselves to pursuing a better alternative to dealing with our waste than sending it to landfill. We have tackled this issue head-on and have gone for a solution that is better for the environment and significantly better for the taxpayers of the city.”

'Waste of resources'

Opponents of the plant, including the local branch of Friends of the Earth (FoE), claim it uses 'antiquated' technology, that it will cost the council an extra £3.6 million over the course of the contract, and that the region could soon suffer from overcapacity of waste treatment facilities, which could see recyclable waste incinerated. Indeed, FoE told Resource that half of Peterborough's residual waste is comprised of recyclable material, making the non-recyclable faction of household waste just over 20,000 tonnes, capable of fulfilling less than a quarter of the plant's capacity.

Shlomo Dowen, National Coordinator of the United Kingdom Without Incineration Network (UKWIN), added: "This facility is a waste of resources and a waste of money, and would exacerbate local, regional and national incineration overcapacity. The focus should be on waste reduction, reuse and recycling rather than building more incineration capacity that we do not need and cannot afford."

Read more about Viridor’s Peterborough energy-from-waste plant.