Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority Future Arrangements for Waste Management

The Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority is the statutory body responsible for making arrangements for the treatment and disposal of Local Authority Collected Waste collected by the five Waste Collection Authorities of Knowsley Borough Council, Liverpool City Council, Sefton Borough Council, St Helens Borough Council and Wirral Borough Council and, through a separate agreement, providing services for Halton Borough Council (a unitary authority).MWDA's public facing name is the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (MRWA or the Authority) which is used throughout this notice.

As the Waste Disposal Authority, the Authority is responsible for the transfer, transport, treatment, and disposal of all local authority collected waste within Merseyside, totalling approximately 500,000 tonnes of material each year. The scale of this operation requires a significant amount of infrastructure; this includes a network of transfer facilities for both bulking and onward transportation of waste and recycling, along with treatment and processing facilities both within Merseyside and beyond. MRWA holds two large waste management contracts: a waste disposal contract for residual waste, referred to as the Resource Recovery Contract and a waste management contract for recyclable waste, and the transfer and haulage of residual waste, referred to as the Waste Management and Recycling Contract (WMRC).

The WMRC will come to an end in 2029 and a decision has been made to procure future arrangements for the management of recyclable waste and transfer and haulage of recyclables and residual waste. The two current Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) at Gillmoss and Bidston are aged and are not designed to sort the additional materials required by UK Government's Simpler Recycling initiative, and the Household Waste Recycling Centres(HWRCs) are mostly outdated and in need of modernising to current standards.

The replacement for the WMRC will be a disaggregated model and will comprise of four contracts:

• Contract 1: HWH - comprising of the HWRCs, Waste Transfer Stations and Haulage
• Contract 2: MRF - a new build Materials Recovery Facility
• Contract 3: Garden Waste (Merchant Contract)
• Contract 4: Food Waste (Merchant Contract)

This market engagement document seeks feedback on a number of important considerations for the Authority's procurement of a new MRF facility under the proposed new Contract 2. Further information on this notice can be obtained via the email address referenced in this notice emailing the address listed within this notice

The Authority is obliged to comply with the public procurement regime. A fair and transparent process will be undertaken which will be designed to arrive at the right decision without being overly burdensome.

To ensure that this forthcoming process is successful for both the Authority and the appointed supplier, it is important to design a procurement process which facilitates the best possible result supported by a contract model which enables innovation, flexibility and encourages true partnership.

The Authority's proposed route to market is to run a competitive flexible procedure in accordance with the Procurement Act 2023.

The Authority's proposed procurement timetable is set out below. The Authority would like to highlight that the procurement will be undertaken quickly and efficiently. To that end, the Authority has secured internal and external resource to ensure that the timetable is delivered. The Authority will require interested tenderers to mobilise to support the bidding process quickly and then deploy resource to ensure that they meet the key milestones set out below.

• Procurement Launch - January 2027
• Dialogue commences with shortlisted Tenderers - April 2027
• Contract Award - October 2028
• Works Commencement - October 2028
• Start of Commissioning (Import and Processing Halls) - Summer 2030
• Closure of Existing MRF and conversion to Export Hall - Autumn 2030
• New MRF Service Commencement Date - Spring 2031
• Contract Expiry Date - September 2053