A consortium led by Shanks has been revealed as preferred bidder for the £560 million North West Region Waste Management Group (NWRWMG) residual waste contract in Northern Ireland.
The seven Northern Irish councils that make up NWRWMG will now decide upon the recommendation of the Joint Committee to appoint SBS Waste Management as preferred bidder.
SBS Waste Management is made up of Shanks, Northern Irish waste management and civil engineering firm Brickkiln and construction company Sisk.
Under the terms of the contract, the partnership will manage up to a maximum of 140,000 tonnes of residual waste per annum. The waste will be processed by mechanical biological treatment to extract recyclable material and produce a solid recovered fuel, which will then be used in a gasification plant to generate energy.
Planning permission for the site has been approved and is now moving into the financing stage.
Shanks UK managing director Peter Eglinton said: “We are pleased to have been selected as preferred bidder, although much work remains to be done to deliver an appropriate solution for our customer.
“We look forward to working closely with the NWRWMG as we progress our plans.”
NWRWMG chair Councillor Evelyn Robinson added: “This decision brings us another step closer to finalising one of the largest and most complicated public procurement exercises in Northern Ireland. It has the potential to revolutionise and revitalise the way we handle our waste.
“Environmental considerations and EU regulations highlight that we should send much less waste to landfill. The proposed new waste facilities will maximise recycling rates and provide renewable energy from the region’s waste.
“The technology being proposed, a combination of mechanical biological treatment and gasification, represents best practice. The facilities will create jobs, provide value for money to ratepayers, ensure that the region avoids potentially punishing EU fines for failing to diver waste from landfill and safeguard our environment.”
