INCREASED recycling will be the central focus of the island’s future waste strategy if States members give the green light to proposals for an £85m integrated residual waste treatment facility at Longue Hougue.

Public Services will take its proposals to the States in July for a modular solution combining a materials recovery facility and an energy from waste (EfW) plant.  This will be built and operated by Suez Environnement, one of the world’s leading waste treatment companies, which the Department has chosen as its recommended bidder from the tenders received.

Its proposed plant has been designed to have minimal visual impact, including a specially landscaped roof, and could be operational in 2012.  It will have an initial overall capacity of between 45,000 and 57,000 tonnes per year.

A second phase could increase this to 70,000 tonnes, at an additional cost of around £16 million.  However that is not expected to be required, if at all, until 2026 at the earliest.  This modular approach means the island is not tied to the same combination of technologies for the 25 years of the contract, as new forms of treatment could be incorporated in the future.

If the States approves, the French firm will be awarded a contract to design, build and operate the plant for 25 years.  The cost of both the plant itself and its ongoing operation will be paid for entirely from the gate fees over this time.

The EfW element of the initial plant will be capable of producing enough electricity to power around 2,000 homes.  However it will be considerably smaller than the previous waste incinerator that was proposed at Longue Hougue, which the States rejected in 2004.

That was designed to deal with between 50,000 and 70,000 tonnes of waste per year, but the capacity of the Suez EfW plant will be just 37,000 to 41,500 tonnes.  This is possible because up to 40% of incoming industrial and commercial waste will be recycled through the materials recovery facility.

The inert bottom ash from the EfW plant will also be processed to remove metal for recycling and recover most of the remaining residue to be reused as building aggregate.  Only around 1% of the volume of waste going into the plant will end up as landfill.

Emissions will be tightly controlled and monitored, to conform with stringent international guidelines.  Residues from the gas cleaning system, including what is commonly referred to as fly ash, will be sent for treatment at another Suez plant in France.

Public Services Minister Deputy Bernard Flouquet said the proposals represented the best solution to the island’s waste treatment.

‘We have been through an exhaustive and rigorous selection process, as a result of which we are now able to put forward a solution that we believe best meets the island’s needs and also represents the least cost option of all the tenders received,’ he said.

‘This is a modular solution, based on proven technologies and encompassing a high level of recycling and recovery.  It can also evolve over time, with the flexibility to incorporate other waste treatment solutions in future.  Overall it represents a much better and far more sustainable method of treating our waste than landfill.’

The predicted future waste arisings, approved by the States in November 2007, estimate that a total of 45,000 tonnes of residual waste will be produced in 2012, rising to 70,000 tonnes in 2037.  Those figures are based on the island meeting its 50% recycling target, and include what is currently disposed of through landfill at Mont Cuet, as well as waste currently treated at other private sector facilities, such as Pointes Lane.

The proposed treatment facilities have sufficient capacity to deal with all this waste, and could potentially replace these other facilities.  If the States decides to go for full sewage treatment in the future, the EfW plant would also be able to accept resulting sludge that will need to be disposed off, which is estimated to be between 1,500 and 3,000 tonnes per year.

Suez operates more than 1,000 treatment facilities around the world, using a wide range of technologies to process more than 42 million tonnes of waste a year.  Its bid involves an international team of design, engineering, construction and waste management firms, including a number of local businesses.

These are building contractors J W Rihoy & Son and architects Falla Associates International.  Local waste firms Guernsey Recycling and Island Waste, which runs the Pointes Lane facility, are also involved in the proposals.

A public presentation of the proposed waste treatment plant will be held at Les Nicolles School on Tuesday 26 May 2009, starting at 7pm.

Contact information

Public Services Department

01481 717000