One of the most significant partnerships of the year sees Covanta Energy and Peel Environmental joining forces to deliver a £500 million investment in the North West of England. Together they will create the UK’s biggest industrial “eco-park” designed to increase waste recycling, reprocessing and energy recovery.
The eco-park is to be located adjacent to the Stanlow Oil Refinery on the south bank of the Manchester Ship Canal about 10 miles to the east of Chester and within easy reach of both Manchester and Liverpool. It will be the UK’s largest resource recovery park and be run by Ince Park LLP, in a joint venture partnership between Covanta and Peel. The agreement will see Covanta Energy – the world’s biggest operator of Energy-from-Waste facilities design, build, own and operate the EfW facility. This state of the art facility will turn household and business waste, which cannot be sensibly recycled, into heat and up to 95 MW of electricity. That is enough electricity to meet the needs of about 150,000 homes. Much of this energy can be redeployed on the eco-park to increase the viability of recycling and reprocessing goods and materials to avoid them being sent to landfill. Construction of the EfW facility is anticipated to commence in 2011.
Peel Environmental and Covanta will jointly market the remainder of the 126 acre site to organisations in the waste and environmental sectors. They will promote the use of the Manchester Ship Canal’s deep water berth for the transportation of goods to and from the eco-park as well as its rail sidings and easy access to the motorway (M56). About 50 acres of the site has already been earmarked for extensive landscaping and a nature reserve.
Myles Kitcher, Director of Peel Environmental commented: “We are delighted to have found a partner in Covanta who is committed to delivering the EfW plant at the earliest possible opportunity. This means that we are looking at several hundred construction jobs over a three year period in addition to creating more than 1,000 full time jobs across the full Ince site. Jobs we promised during the planning process will now become a reality.”
The concept behind the eco-park is to treat waste as a resource rather than a costly problem. Owen Michaelson, Chairman of Peel Environmental, said: “We need to make more careful use of the earth’s resources. I believe we should make efficient use of the waste that remains after recycling and maximise our use of renewable resources. This will enable us to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. We must use our precious mineral resources in a responsible manner and only as part of a balanced energy policy.”
Covanta’s UK Managing Director, Malcolm Chilton added: “Our Energy-from-Waste facility will be the heart of the eco-park which we believe will be a model for the future. It represents the most sensible and viable alternative to our country’s current over reliance on landfill for municipal and business waste. It will provide the energy and means to truly make recycling and reprocessing a reality and not just an aspiration.”
Commenting on the agreement Scott Whitney, Covanta’s European President said: “By combining the strengths of Peel Environmental and Covanta Energy we will provide an environmentally beneficial and economical method for dealing with residual waste. The synergies are fantastic and I am optimistic we will find other similar projects to work on together.”