Residual waste treatment facility to be built

SITA Environmental Solutions' parent company, Suez Environnement, has been selected as the preferred bidder by the public services department of Guernsey Island to design, build and operate, for a period of 25 years, a residual waste treatment facility. Cumulated revenues of this contract amount to almost AU$412 million (including capital expenditures and life cycle costs).

The proposed treatment plant combines a sorting and recycling facility, a residual waste to energy plant and a treatment platform for bottom ashes. In total, over 95% of tonnages received will be recovered, including 50% material recovery.

The overall capacity will be about 45,000 tonnes per year in 2012, to cope with Guernsey's growing recycling goals and the evolution of waste management. The project is based on a modular approach to waste treatment that maximises recovery potential, complies with regulations and is adapted to Guernsey’s specific requirements (proven technology, minimal visual impact and high recycling rates).

Guernsey Island produces a quarter of a million tonnes of waste annually. Household and commercial waste (about 40,000 tonnes) is currently sent to the Mont Cuet landfill, the only existing treatment facility on the island. This site is almost saturated and the public services department needed to find a sustainable on-island solution for waste treatment for the coming years. Guernsey contacted 60 companies in 2008 for the invitation to tender and then pre-selected eight of them.

Final approval by the 47 members of the States of Guernsey will occur in July 2009.