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    Biowise conquers new horizons with £30m contract for Cheshire East Council

    | BY Wastewise
    Wastewise team

    Leading recycling and waste management firm Biowise has announced that it has been awarded a minimum 15-year contract for the treatment of organic waste in partnership with Cheshire East Council.

    Hull-based Biowise fought off strong competition to win the £30 million contract for the provision of an Organic Waste Treatment Solution for Cheshire East Council, now expanding their current household organic waste collection service to include food waste.

    Biowise will design, build, finance and operate a £7m state-of-the-art Gicom In-vessel Composting Facility (IVC) along with associated Aerated Static Pile (ASP) composting, screening and blending operations at the Council owned site in Leighton Grange, near Crewe.

    Councillor Don Stockton, cabinet member for environment at Cheshire East Council commented: “Biowise put forward a proposal that not only fulfilled all our strategic, operational and financial requirements, but assists us in making recycling as simple as possible for residents, with additional beneficial outcomes for the community and minimal disruption to service.”

    In 2015, Biowise developed a similar IVC facility at their own site in Eppleworth, near Hull, which now handles up to 75,000 tonnes of garden and food waste produced annually by households in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. The facility utilises the industry leading Dutch ‘Gicom’ technology, on which the new site in Leighton Grange will be modelled.

    Founded in 1984, Gicom Composting Systems has to date installed its technology in over 700 facilities worldwide and offers end users a safe, reliable, efficient and cost effective method of recycling organic waste and achieving landfill diversion targets. “We have a great relationship with Biowise and are very happy to be partnering with them on this project and in the development of further opportunities in the UK,” commented Monique Groenenboom, Gicom Managing Director.

    The planned facility in Leighton Grange will have the capacity to process up to 75,000 tonnes per annum of food and garden waste and is expected to take one year to build with a proposed operational date of Summer 2019. Once fully operational, it is anticipated that over 96% of the waste inputs will be recycled into quality compost for use in horticultural, agricultural, landscaping or land remediation sector. All other process outputs will either be recycled or sent for energy and heat recovery, meaning minimal quantities of waste, if any, will be disposed into landfill.

    “We are delighted to be working with Cheshire East Council on this new waste treatment project which will provide a proven solution for the treatment of organic waste as well as a quality end product,” said James Landau, Managing Director of Biowise.

    Biowise secured a seven-figure funding package from Yorkshire Bank to assist with the build of this new facility. The Yorkshire Bank team worked closely with Biowise to ensure the funding structure they provided was tailored to meet the needs of the business.

    Pete Sumners, Corporate and Structured Finance Director at Yorkshire Bank, said: “The development of this state-of-the-art facility is extremely encouraging for Biowise and we are delighted to support this important project. By bringing this market leading technology into the North, the plant will transform the way the local authority processes its recycling as well as create employment opportunities.

    Biowise, (T/A Wastewise) is a leading waste management and recycling company based in Willerby, Hull, with over 50 years experience. The company promotes the use of innovative and sustainable waste treatment methods to help achieve zero waste to landfill.

    Looking to expand their horizons across Northern England, this is Biowise’s first Local Authority contract outside the Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire region. Operations and Development Director Bob Wilkes, who joined the business in June of this year, is spearheading the company’s geographical growth as it continues to broaden its waste-processing infrastructure, which includes materials recycling, biomass and alternative fuel production facilities.