This contract, which will start on 1^st October 2019, covers some 152,000 inhabitants across 23 municipalities, including Poitiers, and represents almost €46m in turnover over eight years. Excluding the Île-de-France Region, this is one of the largest contract in terms of turnover ever awarded to Urbaser Environnement.

Métropole du Grand Poitiers has been actively engaged in an ambitious environmental policy for many years, focusing its waste management activities among other aspects on sorting at the source and on exploring different processing channels to enable waste to be transformed into energy or recycling. From December 2009, its waste management activities entered in the frame of the Waste Prevention and Reduction Programme (PPPRD), then of the Waste Objectives and Circular Economy Contract (CODEC) which has been signed with the French government, as part of the “Zéro Gaspillage Zéro Déchet” programme, aiming at wasteful elimination.

The Cleaning Division now has some ten years’ experience in waste management

Urbaser Environnement’s Technical Office is not just handling increasingly large numbers of tenders (the number of submissions has doubled in three years), but these are also increasingly relevant and personalised in order to respond to a very high level of service. Moreover, the quality, geographical proximity, availability and commitment of the Group’s operational divisions make us more than just providers of urban cleaning services, but also true partners for regional authorities, going far beyond the solely contractual business. Urbaser Environnement now offers not only waste collection at a fair price, but also services’evolutions that are scalable from the tender submission date, providing long-term support for regional and local authorities in the necessary development of public waste management services.

This success is all the more important for our teams in that it results from of a competitive bidding process, requiring negotiation, argumentation and defence before the local authority’s representatives by our Technical Office, our Development Department, our local Operations’ Division and our Head Office Cleaning Service.

Our solution, as selected by Grand Poitiers, is based on five main objectives:

• Continuous optimisation of waste collection, including harmonization of the collection methods throughout the territory;

• Research into new waste collection systems;

• Transparency in relation to the public administration through innovative digital control and monitoring tools;

• Communications suited to each stage of development of the services;

• Minimum environmental impact of the services.

The first year of the contract will be devoted to analysing and identifying solutions for optimising services, always with the aim of providing an effective, high quality waste collection service for users. During the following years, improvements identified by our teams and selected by the local authority, will be deployed.

More efficient, ergonomic and less noisy vehicles

One concrete example is the technical choice of vehicles. Métropole du Grand Poitiers is committed for adopting a Territorial Climate-Air-Energy Plan (PCAET). Currently at the public enquiry stage, this plans to cut energy consumption by 25% and to source 38% of the Métropole’s energy mix from renewables (RenE) by 2030. The inclusion of all-electric vehicles in the fleet of 25 brand-new collection trucks deployed across the territory (the others will run on natural gas) will allow immediate gains to be made in energy consumption and, along with other strong measures, will contribute towards achieving the objectives shortly to be confirmed by the local authority. 

All the agents assigned to the present contract will be maintained, in strict compliance with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement. Our agents will be given an induction and training course presenting, collectively and individually, the collection methods chosen by Métropole du Grand Poitiers, market expectations and corporate values. They will be based in a new agency at the heart of the territory, in Poitiers. This newly built location with every convenience (recreational areas, rest zone, offices, workshop, etc.) will strengthen our presence in France’s Grand-Ouest Region.

 « The awarding of this new contract confirms the dynamic drive of our Group in France which, having recently won two major household waste treatment contracts (operation of the Isséane plant, and construction and operation of the future Trifyl plant), is continuing to expand its Waste collection and Cleaning activity to the complete satisfaction of our clients ».

Claude Saint-Joly, Chairman and CEO Urbaser Environnement

Méridiam – a French investment fund managing more than €6bn of assets, specialised in financing public projects – and the Urbaser Group, have been awarded a Waste-to-Energy project as a joint venture in Olsztyn, the capital of the Warmian-Masurian region in north-east Poland.

This PPP (public-private partnership) contract covers the financing, design, construction and operation of the Waste-to-Energy facility for a period of 25 years.

The Urbaser Group will be in charge of the turn-key erection and of the operation of this installation. It holds a 20% stake in the operating company, 80% of which is owned by Méridiam.

The thermal recovery of 120,000t/year of household waste will provide district heating for the entire town of Olsztyn, replacing the coal-fired power plant. This new facility will cover the heat and power requirements of the town’s 270,000 inhabitants.

This will make a genuine contribution to the development of a circular economy and help combat climate change by preventing the release of 60,000t of CO₂ per year into the atmosphere. It will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by almost 200% with regards to the waste disposal.

The project will create more than 500 new jobs during the construction phase and 30 people will be recruited for operation.

Overall, the project is worth €165 million. After a 3-years construction phase, the plant is expected to operate for a period of 25 years.

This energy recovery project is the second developed jointly by Méridiam and the Urbaser Group. They are also jointly running the Zubieta project (San Sebastian Waste-to-Energy plant) which will be operational from October 2019.