Waste firm Biffa is taking over Highbridge Recycling Centre, along with Somerset’s other 15 recycle sites, from Viridor, which has managed them for Somerset Waste Partnership for many years.
Customers will see little or no change except on site branding and signs, says Somerset Waste Partnership’s Managing Director Mickey Green.
Biffa is also acquiring Viridor’s anaerobic digestion plant near Bridgwater, which transforms 22,500 tonnes of Somerset’s food waste into electricity, and the composting sites that turn almost 40,000 tonnes of the county’s garden waste into the Revive soil conditioner.
Mr Green adds that Somerset Waste Partnership and Somerset County Council are carrying out due diligence checks to ensure that Somerset residents’ interests are fully protected.
Viridor staff are expected to transfer to Biffa employment from September.
Worth £126 million, the proposed sale has been allowed by the Competitions & Markets Authority. It does not include Viridor’s Avonmouth energy-from-waste plant that generates electricity from all of Somerset’s kerbside rubbish and about 60% of recycle site refuse.
Reflecting SWP’s own plans, Biffa’s business ambitions include fostering local waste education programmes and supporting viable reuse schemes.
Global investment company KKR acquired Viridor for £4.2 billion in July 2020.
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