GMWDA Award

European Waste Deal of the Year 2009 has been awarded to Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) and the consortium who completed the Greater Manchester waste financing deal last year. The Project Finance awards by the Project Finance and Infrastructure magazine were the first of this type in the industry and have been running for eleven years.

Project Finance and Infrastructure Magazine states: “The Greater Manchester Waste financing is one of the most complex to date for a UK Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project, with two separate financing companies and development over 30 sites, multiple treatment facilities and a waste-fired Thermal Power Station which produces both electricity and steam”. “Greater Manchester Waste stands out in terms of its sheer size and complexity, but also because it was structured and successfully closed when simpler deals with lower debt requirements were being treated with caution”.

Neil Swannick, Chairman of GMWDA said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive the European Waste Deal of the Year 2009. We are proud of our achievement and the project is bringing significant environmental and economic benefits, particularly on the jobs front, to the North West Region.”

The awards are for innovation, deal repeatability, best practice, problem solving, risk mitigation, value for money and speed of delivery in the financing of infrastructure projects, large or small.

GMWDA signed the 25 year Recycling and Waste Management Contract with Viridor Laing (Greater Manchester) (VLGM) Limited on the 8 April 2009. The Contract is a £631 million construction programme, creating a network of state-of-the-art recycling facilities over the next 5 years. The Contract is worth £3.8 billion to VLGM over its term. The contract is the most complex Waste Management Contract of its kind in Western Europe and involves major capital investment.

GMWDA has had 100% success with securing planning applications for all of our new facilities for 36 facilities across 23 sites. All facilities will be completed by 2012 and will reduce waste diverted to landfill by an impressive 75% and we will be able to recycle and compost at least 50% of all waste.