Skip to navigation Skip to main content

You are currently in: Waste strategy

Key contacts

0845 calls to Essex County Council are charged at BT landline standard rate. Please check with your provider as other tariffs may vary.

Recycling and Waste

Telephone: 0845 603 7625

The Essex Waste Partnership

The Essex Waste Partnership includes Essex County Council, our 12 district and borough councils and the unitary authority of Southend-on-Sea Borough Council. The Essex Waste Partnership was set up to ensure cost-efficient and sustainable waste management is delivered across the county and Southend.

Our aim is to reduce and reuse as much waste as is physically possible. Despite these efforts, it is predicted that there will still be around 377,000 tonnes of household waste each year which cannot be recycled. This waste needs to be managed in order to minimise its environmental impact. In order to do this, Essex County Council and Southend-on-Sea Borough Council proposes to introduce new waste treatment facilities.
 
The newsletter we produced in May 2011 detailed the progress made at the strategic waste management site at Courtauld Road in Basildon and gave information about our plans for the site.  The November 2011 newsletter provides an update on this information. 

Funding 

 

In July 2009, Essex County Council and Southend-on-Sea Borough Council submitted an outline business case to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for Private Finance Initiative funding for a residual waste treatment facility. Funding worth £100 million has been awarded to the councils, which will help us to deliver this facility for the county. 

 

Procurement 

 
The process to appoint a contractor to build and operate a residual waste treatment facility began in November 2009 with a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union inviting expressions of interest for the waste PFI contract. 
 
We received seven expressions of interest in the form of responses to the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ). All seven Bidders passed the PQQ and were invited to participate in the ‘competitive dialogue’ procurement process.
 
The tender process saw bidders deselected at various stages and culminated in two consortia selected to submit Final Tenders.  They were Resources from Waste and Urbaser/Balfour Beatty.
Following a thorough evaluation process, on 3 January 2012 the Essex Waste Partnership announced that the Urbaser and Balfour Beatty consortium had been named as preferred bidder for the treatment of residual waste in Essex.

Proposal

 
The Urbaser/Balfour Beatty consortium has proposed a Mechanical and Biological Treatment (MBT) facility to treat kerbside collected residual waste, trade waste collected by the local Essex authorities, street sweepings, and all non-recycled waste from recycling centres for household waste across Essex and Southend.
 
It is planned for the new facility to be built at a site on Courtauld Road in Basildon.  The facility will be capable of treating up to 417,000 tonnes of municipal waste a year.  As well as treating waste the facility will incorporate a visitor and education centre for the benefit of the wider community.
 
The construction of the facility will create up to 250 employment opportunities and, once completed, will create 87 full time jobs as well as apprenticeship positions.

Other related contracts 

Biowaste treatment facilities to support residual waste treatment will be procured. These facilities will treat green garden waste and kitchen food waste collected by the Essex Waste Partnership.
 

New integrated waste handling contract

As part of the delivery of the overall waste strategy Essex County Council needs to ensure that it operates the most efficient and cost effective waste management service. 
 
As part of this we intend to let a new contract that will include:
 
• The operation and maintenance of all 21 recycling centres for household waste in Essex;
• Disposing of all the materials collected at the Essex recycling centres for household waste (excluding residual/black bag waste and garden waste);
• The operation of five waste transfer stations in Essex; and
• The operation of a licensed haulage fleet which will move waste
from the recycling centres for household waste and the waste transfer stations.
 
Companies interested in tendering for this contract need to register with the County Council’s electronic supplier portal ecc.supplier.ariba.com.
  

Related documents

You can find a list of documents relating to the Essex Waste Partnership Outline Business Case below:
 
Appendix 4 - Southend Municipal Waste Strategy (3MB)
Appendix 5 - Compatibility of the strategies (26KB)
Appendix 6 - SEA Environmental Report (1.95MB)
Appendix 7 - 2002 War on Waste Consultation Results (634KB)
Appendix 8 - Enviros Disposal Study (1.35MB)
Appendix 9 - 2008 Consultation Report on the waste strategy (48 KB)
Appendix 11 - Thames Gateway BPEO (3MB)
Appendix 12 - Countywide BPEO (3MB)
Appendix 13 - Technical and General Model Assumptions Book (294KB)
Appendix 15 - Interface risks (41KB)
Appendix 16 - Contract risk identification & allocation matrix (36KB)
Appendix 17 - Balance Sheet Treatment (291KB)
Appendix 18 - Governance Arrangements (288MB)
Appendix 19 - Advisor details (25KB)
Appendix 20 - Joint Working Agreement (199KB)
Appendix 22 - Planning Health Checklist (101KB)
Appendix 23 - Design Information (177KB)
Appendix 25 - Financial Assumptions Workbook (15KB)
Appendix 26 - Advisor letters of support (245KB)
Appendix 27 - Qualitative VfM assessment (50KB)
Appendix 30 - Stakeholder analysis table (35KB)
Appendix 31 - ECC Cabinet minutes (54KB)
Appendix 31 - ECC Officer Board minutes (96.6KB)
Appendix 31 - Southend Cabinet minutes (1.55MB)
Appendix 31 - Southend Council minutes (23KB)