SITA UK picks up Merseyside’s £1.1bn waste contract

A CONSORTIUM led by SITA UK has been selected as the preferred bidder for a 30-year, £1.18bn waste contract in Merseyside.

The other consortium members are Sembcorp Utilities UK and I-Environment, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japan-based Itochu Corporation.

The deal with the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority will involve SITA building a waste transfer station in Knowsley, which would transfer up to 500,000 tonnes residue waste from a neighbouring recycling plant by train up to an energy from waste plant in Teesside.

David Palmer-Jones, chief executive of SITA UK said: “This is great news for Merseyside, for the environment and for new jobs. We are delighted to be selected as preferred bidder for this major contract in Merseyside.

“The two new facilities that we will develop will enable all of Merseyside’s household waste to be put to good use. We will create 73 new full time jobs in Merseyside and Teeside and several hundred more during the construction of our new resource recovery facilities.

“The new energy-from-waste facility provides a sustainable way to manage waste and further strengthens the North East as a centre for energy recovery in the UK.”