The States of Guernsey is looking to award a new contract for the export and treatment of the island’s general waste, starting from January 2024.
Any interested parties have until 21 April to complete the first stage, which is to complete a prequalification questionnaire (PQQ). That will enable Guernsey Waste to identify a shortlist of potential service providers who will be invited to tender for the contract.
The material, which is known as refuse derived fuel, or RDF, is made from a combination of household and commercial general waste. It is mechanically shredded at the waste transfer station at Longue Hougue, with some residual metal removed during processing before the remaining material is compacted and baled, and loaded onto trailers, ready for shipping.
Last year, around 11,500 tonnes of RDF were produced at the waste transfer station.
The States currently has a contract with Geminor UK, one of Europe’s largest waste exporters. That was signed in 2018, with shipments of RDF beginning in December that year.
Geminor has exported the material, via the UK, to high efficiency energy recovery facilities in Sweden, where it is used to generate electricity and district heating.
The original contract was for an initial three years with an option to extend for a further two years, and therefore runs until the end of 2023.
Separately collected food waste, from households and businesses, is also exported to the UK for energy recovery. That is under a separate export and treatment contract, and the material undergoes a different process, to generate electricity and produces a fertilizer.
A third contract, for recycling the island’s glass, is also expected to be retendered this year.
