Richard Dobbs provided the following verbal
update:
- In 2016,
Warwickshire, Coventry and Solihull had several failed procurements
and were struggling to find anything affordable with obtaining
sustainable outlets for their materials collected kerbside. The
market for this was charging £70-£75 per tonne
- A feasibility
study in 2016 was undertaken and they agreed to build their own MRF
in Coventry, there was engagement with the market and a business
case put forward in 2019
- There was a
detailed procurement process, bidders were shortlisted in 2020 with
the contract awarded in December 2020
- Planning
permission was granted in January 2021 and the financial closing
contract awarded in April 2021 to Sherbourne Recycling Ltd
- Officers felt that
risk was in the wrong place and that they were not getting value
for money for material management
- The engineering
contract was awarded to MachineX after
three contractors were engaged. There will be high capital costs
but low operational costs
- Building the MRF
will be cheaper then continuing to use
the private sector
- It will be AI
based as it gets through material quicker
- There will be
90-95% quality standards with MachineX
compared to 75% with other ones
- The MRF will
handle plastic film and tetra pack and grade different kinds of
metals
- PALM (who
manufacture high quality fibre) was being consulted with as they
were interested in the material going through them
- The MRF will be
flexible with a built in-capacity so it could adapt
- The MRF will be
built bigger then needed to fulfil requirements that emerge from
the new emerging municipal waste management structure
- The project board
included officer and members and a stakeholder panel
- The MRF should
open in July 2023 and start the waste commission phase in March
2023
- Joint working
agreements were being set up
- A 25-year long
agreement will be in place and redundancy will be built into the
plan so the MRF will last longer (40 years as a minimum)
- The MRF will be
12,000 meters squared in size and manage 250,00-300,000 tonnes of
waste a week from the current 75,000-100,000 annually
- It will hold a
weeks’ worth on input and two weeks’ worth of
output
- At the time of the
meeting the MRF was in the construction phase and groundworks were
nearly finished
- The private wire
connection turning waste to energy design was being finalised and
companies were working on the MRFs utilities
- Work was ongoing
in terms of bulking and haulage with getting material in and out of
the MRF.
- Potential partners
were being consulted to make sure that 175,000 tonnes of material
can go out and 125,000 tonnes in
- Other local
authorities were interested in the MRF (either to be used for their
waste or to do something similar to it) including from Northern
Ireland
In response to Councillor Bell, Richard Dobbs
confirmed that materials would be recycled quicker with this MRF
and the recycled material would be a high enough quality for a
bottle to become a bottle again instead of a lower quality material
item. The local authorities would also get more money back from
this process.
In response to Glen McGrandle (Head of Waste and Transport), Richard
Dobbs stated that that there had been no issues with the
environmental permit. The Environmental Agency were concerned with
fire suppression, noise, pollution, and water drainage but bespoke
plans were in place for everything.
In response to Councillor Shenton, Richard
Dobbs confirmed that they were on target with timescale plans but
there were some unforeseen circumstances with the machinery in
Canada, but this will be resolved. Following a supplementary from
Councillor Shenton, Richard Dobbs confirmed that fire safety
protocols were in place, but this would be designed in multiple
ways.