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Greater Manchester Waste Sites, UK
Its early goals were to ensure that, in the run-up to delivery, there would be a rise of no more than 1 per cent in municipal waste by 2010. Thereafter, Manchester’s target is to register 0 per cent increases in municipal waste by 2020, and no growth through to 2030. As well as sorting recyclable materials, the waste programme will achieve 33 per cent of recycling and composting of household waste by 2010, increasing to a minimum of 50 per cent by 2020. There is also a considerable energy component in this deal, created through a number of competing energy from waste technologies, adding to the UK’s already burgeoning alternative energy sector. Waste already accounts for 30 per cent of the total renewable energy production in the country; 1.5 per cent of the UK’s electricity. This energy source has a big future in the UK with some believing that waste will one day account for 6 per cent of the UK’s total power generation. These facilities include a thermal power station in Runcorn, Cheshire, for solid recovered fuel created from residual waste that cannot be recycled. This will be used to provide electricity and heat for the nearby Ineos Chlor chemicals plant. There will also be five mechanical biological treatment plants with four
associated anaerobic digestion facilities that will sort materials into dry recyclables and solid recovered fuel for use in creating renewable energy as well as using the methane from the AD process to create electricity. This contract is worth £3.8 billion to Viridor Laing and will increase costs (at current prices) to Greater Manchester householders by £1 per week. However, this compares favourably with the cost of a “do nothing, build nothing” option which would cost an extra £2 a week in Landfill Tax and penalties – while failing social responsibility to recycle and move away from the ‘throw-away’ society of old. This transaction stands as a landmark for the PFI sector and was essential to getting the UK on track to reducing the amount of waste it sends to landfill and shedding the image of old. It also saw the banking community lend £245 million in a tight financing environment, in the very heart of the global financial crisis – thought it did have to be supported by the recently-created Treasury Infrastructure Finance Unit. Financial close on Manchester Waste lent confidence to the beleaguered financing and sponsor community and helped break the UK logjam in PPP deals.
Greater Manchester Waste Sites, UK