Guernsey to ship waste 892 miles north, rather than 27 miles to Jersey

Thursday 14 April 2016

Guernsey will ship its waste 892 miles to Sweden rather than 27 miles to Jersey from 2018, after a Swedish firm won the contract to burn the island’s rubbish.

Jersey had been in the running for the deal because there’s spare capacity at the £110 million incinerator that was built in 2011.

But, amid elections in Guernsey, it has been announced that the deal is going to Geminor UK, who operate a plant at Jonkoping.

The Guernsey authorities say that despite the distance and shipping costs, the Swedish option is more cost effective.

The island’s Public Services department is expected to sign a three-year deal to send between 20,000 and 25,000 tonnes of waste per year to Scandinavia.

Public Services Minister, Deputy Scott Ogier, said that the 18-month process to find a waste partner had achieved the right result.

He said: "Now we have also identified the export arrangements, which is something that islanders have been keen to know.  It is another key step in the implementation of the waste strategy. 

"Geminor is one of Europe's leading RDF exporters, and already deals with nearly half a million tonnes a year from the UK and Ireland.  They have the expertise we require, and we will benefit from their established transport and logistics network.  They also have contracts with dozens of processing facilities, which provides excellent resilience for the island.  

"The final piece of the jigsaw is the operating contracts for the on-island facilities, and we hope to complete those negotiations in the coming weeks.  We will shortly hand over responsibility for implementing the waste strategy to the new States Trading Supervisory Board, and they will be in a good position."