We work with experienced technology partners and apply our project management and engineering expertise to bring innovative solutions to the Waste market.
As government landfill taxes rise, local authorities are looking for the most efficient way to minimise their costs and maximise the amount of waste sent for recycling. VT Group has identified the drive towards processing waste, rather than sending it to landfill, as a potential source of new business.
The opportunity
An EU Landfill Directive stipulates that local authorities must reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill from 2010. Failure to meet these targets will result in significant fines.
This market, worth £5 billion in the UK, with £10 billion of new infrastructure required by 2010, is ideally suited to VT because of our:
- project management skills
- Private Finance Initiative (PFI) experience
- engineering and systems integration experience
- proven ability to work with government
Moreover, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) are concerned at the lack of competition in the waste market, in particular the provision of new processing facilities. They are keen to encourage new entrants into the market, especially those with similar skills and experience to VT.
Expertise in practice
We have recently been awarded the contract to build and manage municipal household waste facilities for Wakefield Metropolitan District Council. This PFI deal involves:
- a £700 million investment in new technology for managing household waste in Wakefield
- reducing Wakefield’s 150,000 tonnes of landfill a year
- helping Wakefield achieve 52% recycling by 2015.
We are seeking to apply similar technology in other British regions.
Find out more about our activities in Wakefield.