Government throws £310m at landfill power projects

Defra announces plans for four PFI projects

The government has today announced plans for four private finance initiative (PFI) projects, designed to divert one million tonnes of waste from landfill.

Defra said it had awarded a combined £310m in PFI credits to waste management and reduction projects proposed by Suffolk County Council, Leeds City Council, Bradford Metropolitan District Council and a partnership including councils from Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham.

Each of the projects aim to increase local recycling rates to between 50 and 60 per cent by 2020 and are expected to include Combined Heat and Power technologies based on waste-to-energy or Mechanical Biological Treatment systems.

"PFI agreements like these provide an incentive for local authorities and industry to work together to achieve our goals of reducing the environmental impact of waste, and making better use and reuse of the waste we create," said environment minister Joan Ruddock. "Importantly, each one of them is pursuing a solution which will achieve major carbon benefits."

The UK is under growing pressure to curb the amount of waste it sends to landfill, in order to both reduce carbon emissions and comply with an EU directive that threatens to fine governments that fail to meet landfill reduction targets.

Each authority will put the projects out to tender in the Official Journal of European Union (OJEU) soon.