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A £650m deal has been signed for one of Europe's biggest waste and recycling contracts. Services for handling the 1.3m tonnes of waste will be provided for the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) by Viridor Laing, in a 25-year private-finance initiative signed last week. The authority claimed the agreement would bring the latest in waste technologies, which are proven in Europe but never seen before in the UK on this scale. The deal will trigger a £640m construction programme, creating a network of state-of-the-art recycling facilities over the next five years. It is estimated that at least 5,000 much-needed jobs in the building trade and the wider economy will be added to the 620 jobs at Greater Manchester Waste, based in Bolton. Viridor Laing is planning to increase the permanent workforce by another 116 staff, once the facilities are up and running. The contract is worth £3.8bn to Viridor Laing, and will increase costs – at today's prices – to Greater Manchester householders by £1 a week. Under the contract, virtually all new facilities are to be built at existing sites, and will help take residents' recycling rates to at least 50% by 2015. Valuable recyclables and green energy will be extracted from material that would previously have gone to landfill, therefore delivering a significant reduction in the region's greenhouse gases. Environment secretary, Hilary Benn, said: ‘Diverting one million tonnes of waste through these world-class waste facilities will be a major step in reaching our 2013 and 2020 landfill targets, and play an important role in battling climate change. ‘The creation of 5,000 new jobs in the North West is a boost for the regional economy at a welcome time.'

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BUSINESS

£650m waste contract

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