Residual waste treatment: who’s the daddy?

Last week Eunomia published the latest update to its Residual Waste Infrastructure Review. We thought it would be interesting to cut the numbers differently and take a look at who amongst the ‘Big 7’ players in the UK is actually developing the most new waste treatment capacity.

Figure 1 shows Veolia and Viridor are neck-and-neck in terms of operational (or under construction) capacity, but the Taunton-based Viridor has a far stronger pipeline of projects either consented or within the planning process. Sita is some way behind these two in terms of operating (or under construction) capacity, but has over 2 million tonnes of capacity sitting with consent, enough to bring it into the same league as the leading pair. FCC is not too far behind Sita in terms of operating (or under construction) capacity, but has a far less strong pipeline, whilst Cory, Biffa and Shanks are all some way behind.

Figure 1 – The Big Seven’s Treatment Capacity

Across all seven players, it is interesting to note that nearly as much capacity (over 7 million tonnes) remains either in consenting or consented as that which is operating or under construction (8.5 million tonnes). The extent to which this additional capacity will come into operation depends upon whether financial close can be reached for each facility, which is a far easier proposition for those linked to a local authority contract than those seeking solely commecial and industial wastes. This is something we intend to present in a follow-up article next week, in which we will look at how much of the current capacity which has planning consent is backed by a local authority contract. Watch this space!