Project Talk

Articles here feature in Zero Waste World the regular e-newsletter published by Zero Waste: Edinburgh and Midlothian.

1 May 2012

Project Site

Planning application for the construction of a new access road and bridge into the Project site near Millerhill, Midlothian was approved by Midlothian Council in March (press release). This decision enables the Project Team to provide suitable access for both the construction and operation of the facilities. The Project Team is currently preparing the tendering documentation for construction of the bridge, with work expected to begin later this year.  Detailed design for the distributor road within the site has commenced and once approved this will allow a complete road network to be constructed. Further information will be made available in due course through the Project website.

Residual Waste Treatment

Four bidders - FCC Medio Ambiente S.A., Urbaser, Veolia ES Aurora Ltd and Viridor Waste Management Ltd - have been shortlisted (press release) to participate in competitive dialogue after submitting successful Pre-Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs). Dialogue with the bidders will begin this month and the next stage will be an invitation to submit detailed tenders by the end of the year. A further down-selection is likely to take place before the remaining bidders are invited to submit final tenders, following which a Preferred Bidder will be chosen after a further period of competitive dialogue.

Food Waste Treatment

Progress in the procurement process for the food waste contract is on track. Very productive dialogue between the Project Team and the two remaining bidders - Alauna Renewable Energy and Viridor Waste Management Ltd - took place in March and April and a call for final tenders will be issued this month. Final tenders are expected to be received in June, with an announcement regarding the Preferred Bidder due to be made later in the year.

29 February 2012

There have been a number of developments on the Zero Waste: Edinburgh and Midlothian Project since our last update.

Zero Waste Website

The Project website is undergoing a number of updates. Please continue to visit our website for the latest on Zero Waste.

Millerhill

There have been two key developments regarding the Millerhill site, the Project's preferred location. Following our application for planning permission in principle, Midlothian Council unanimously granted planning permission for modern waste treatment facilities to be built. For more information please refer to the press release

An application for planning permission for road access has been submitted to Midlothian Council in February and we are hopeful of a positive outcome.

Food Waste

After announcing that four bidders were shortlisted in May 2011 to submit proposals for food waste treatment services for Edinburgh and Midlothian by 2015, the Project announced in February that two of these bidders - Alauna Renewable Energy and Viridor Waste Management Ltd - have reached the final stages of the process. Following further dialogue, both will submit final tenders by the summer with an announcement on the preferred bidder to be made later in the year. For more information please refer to the press release

Alauna Renewable Energy is joint-venture between Kelda Water Services and Scottish Water Horizons.

Residual Waste

Notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in December 2011, announcing that the Project is seeking to procure residual waste treatment facilities. The facility will be required to treat around 110,000 tonnes of residual waste a year and be operational by 2017. For more information please refer to the press release

17 March 2011

Search on for Food Waste Facilities

Back in February we published a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) announcing that Zero Waste: Edinburgh and Midlothian were seeking to procure anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities to treat food waste.

The procurement of the AD facility will enable both Councils to meet the requirements of the Scotland's Zero Waste Plan regarding landfill bans on source-segregated food waste and recyclables that are expected to come into force in 2015.

A separate procurement process for additional residual (mixed) waste treatment facilities is likely to commence later in the year.

28 October 2010

Food Waste Treatment Facility Procurement to Begin Soon

At the recent Council meetings of both City of Edinburgh and Midlothian one of the recommendations made on the Zero Waste Project was that the procurement of waste treatment facilities should now be split in two; one for food waste to start as soon as possible and one for residual waste to start next Spring.

This recommendation was agreed and a notice will be placed in the European Journal advising contractors that we are now looking to procure a facility to treat all the food waste collected on behalf of the Councils in Edinburgh and Midlothian, to be operational from around 2013/14.  This advertisement will appear in the next few weeks.

Following on from this, next spring, the team will begin work on the procurement of the residual waste treatment facilities to be ready from around 2017.  This will be a similar process which will include advertising and selecting a number of private contractors with whom to enter into formal discussions.

Extended Consultation Draws to a Close

We've just completed an extended round of consultation on our proposals for waste treatment facilities to be built on a disused site near Millerhill in Midlothian. We held three more public events where we met many different people with varying opinions, comments and questions on the development.

We will be compiling this information and summarising key issues raised to be included in the Planning Application Consultation Report (PAC). This will accompany the application for planning permission in principle which we hope to submit in the coming weeks.

10 September 2010

Consultation Update

We can now confirm the details for the third public event we will host in addtion to the two previously publicised.  This will take place on Thursday 14 October at Fairfield House, 8 Lothian Road, Dalkeith, EH22 3ZP from 6pm to 8pm.  All are welcome.

13 August 2010

New Consultation Deadline - Have Your Say on Zero Waste Plans

We have been running a series of public consultation events since late last year on proposals to build a residual waste treatment facility on a derelict site near Millerhill in Midlothian.

Following the publication of the Scottish Zero Waste Plan in June it was decided to delay the procurement slightly whilst we are carrying out appraisals of the impacts it may have for the procurement of the project.  It was previously thought the procurement process would commence in August but this will now most likely be later this year.

We were due to submit an application for planning permission in principle for the Millerhill site to Midlothian Council's Development Management section at the end of June. However, in light of the delays to the procurement process we have decided to continue with our public consultation until 27 October 2010.  The scope of the proposed development remains the same.

As part of this extended consultation we will host three more public events.  Two will be held at Danderhall Community Centre, Newton Church Road, Danderhall, EH22 1LU, the first on Thursday 30 September from 5.30pm to 8pm and the second on Saturday 2 October from 12pm to 3pm.  Details of the third event will follow.

For anyone wishing to attend, the project team would be keen to hear what everyone has to say about residual waste treatment in Edinburgh and Midlothian and about the potential for using the Millerhill site to build a facility on.  Maps outlining the site and other information relating to the potential development will be on display.

For anyone who can't make it along to one of these events but would like more information on the proposals and/or to make comments they can contact the Zero Waste team on 0131 529 6276 or email zerowaste@edinburgh.gov.uk.

Comments already made to the project team to date stand and key issues raised in the consultation will be summarised in the Pre-Application Consultation Report which will be submitted with the rest of the planning application. Further updates will be posted here.

6 July 2010

Dumfries and Galloway Host Visit from Councils

Councillors and officials from the City of Edinburgh and Midlothian Councils recently visited the new Shanks and Scotgen recycling and energy from waste treatment facilities being used to treat all the waste collected by Dumfries and Galloway Council.  Get the full story here.

23 March 2010

What's New?

It's been an intensive time for the project team over the past 6 months.  Both Midlothian and Edinburgh Councils agreed to the purchase of a large disused, brownfield, site, which borders the operational rail marshalling yards in Millerhill.  This is the project's preferred site and will be offered as a possible location for waste treatment facilities when contractors come forward with their proposed waste treatment solutions.

We carried out a period of public consultation between November last and February this year in advance of applying for planning permission in-principle for this site.  We held three community events at Danderhall Community Centre which were well-attended.  We met lots of local residents as well as people who had come from further afield but were also very interested in the project.  We are currently compiling all the feedback we received at these events; this will form part of the consultation report which will be submitted to the planning authority as part of the planning application.

Once the application has been submitted we will update our website to advise you of when and where you can view the application and make formal comments on the proposals if you wish to do so.

In addition to all this project activity, the staff previously based in Midlothian, have made the leap to join up with the rest of the project team in Edinburgh.  It's been a busy time with no prospect of a let-up over the next few months.  Next week we will take the Councillors involved in the project on a study visit to operational Mechanical Biological Treatment and Energy from Waste facilities which Dumfries & Galloway Council has recently procured. We'll report back on our findings in the next edition.