Green Investment Bank supports Shanks £750m waste project

The Green Investment Bank (GIB) has met its pledge to back the UK's waste management industry and will invest over £30 million on a new facility near Wakefield that will deal with waste treatment, recycling, and waste-to-energy.

The Bank has said it will provide up to £30.4m of senior debt to run the project from Shanks Group, lending commercially terms with a syndicate featuring BayernLB, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Barclays Bank, which in partnership will invest over £120 million in the project.

Shanks Group says the facility in West Yorkshire will form a key part of its new £750 million 25-year PFI contract with Wakefield Council, which has also been announced this week.

The site will process bag waste, while making use of mechanical treatment systems, waste-to-energy technology, and anaerobic digestion facilities to cut greenhouse gas emissions and significantly reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill.

Estimates have suggested that the facilities could process around 200,000 tonnes a year of solid waste, while increasing the local recycling rate to over 50 per cent.

The project is also expected to create around 250 jobs during the construction phase and a further 60 employees should be taken on once the plant is functioning.

After its formal launch in 2012 the GIB is planning a wave of clean technology investments from the bank following its formal launch late last year. The Edinburgh-based bank has earmarked offshore wind, waste management, non-domestic energy efficiency, and Green Deal projects as its top priorities and is under pressure from ministers to mobilise a significant chunk of its £3bn of government funding as quickly as possible.