Viridor has signed a five-year national contract with phs Group in an agreement based on a commitment to providing an energy recovery solution for 40,000 tonnes of non-recyclable material across the UK annually.
phs collects around 65,000 tonnes of hygiene waste from customers, including nappies and sanitary products. The new contract with Viridor will make a significant contribution to helping the Group achieve its aim of up to 95% diversion of its waste from landfill.
The multi-million-pound contract with Viridor will give phs national cover across their network of sites, significantly reducing the road mileage required to dispose of hygiene waste sustainably, as well as offering the capacity that the market-leading hygiene services business needs to ensure its customers’ waste is catered for responsibly.
Paul Ringham, Viridor’s Commercial Director, said: “Viridor’s fleet of energy recovery facilities across the UK provided the sustainable waste management strategy phs was looking for.
A key part of Viridor’s relationship with phs is the emphasis on attaching a purpose to waste which cannot be recycled, putting this residual waste to work in a process which creates low carbon electricity and contributes to UK energy security. This is an ambition shared by phs which, like Viridor, views all waste as a resource and not rubbish.”
David Taylor-Smith, CEO of phs Group, said: “Organisations need to be questioning whether they should leave a burden of more than 500 years for every bag of washroom waste they dispose of. Through phs’ LifeCycle strategy, organisations will significantly reduce their impact upon the planet by landfill diversion and energy creation, transforming this burden into a legacy.
“phs’ company ethos is all about doing the right thing; LifeCycle is the right thing both for the environment and for our customers.”
Viridor’s ERF operational capacity is now 2.8 million tonnes of waste (including joint venture partners) and generating 233MW of electricity per annum. When Avonmouth ERF comes on stream, this will extend to 3.1 million tonnes and 267MW.
Viridor and Grundon Waste Management have also announced their intention to build a new energy recovery facility in a joint venture project at Ford in West Sussex.
