Urbaser Ltd Celebrates 20 Years in the UK

Urbaser Ltd is proud to be celebrating its 20-year anniversary of operating in the UK, having first registered its name with Companies House on 14th December 1998. This anniversary is the culmination of two decades of organic growth and hard work within the UK waste industry which has seen the company become a renowned waste services provider, performing a range of services for both the municipal and waste treatment sectors of waste management.

Urbaser first started in the UK with the 25-year integrated waste management PFI contract with Worcestershire County Council and Herefordshire County Council. This contract has seen the construction of the EnviroSort Materials Recycling Facility, which processes 105,000 tonnes of materials per year; the EnviRecover Energy from Waste Facility, which processes recovers energy from 200,000 tonnes of waste per year; and, the management of Household Waste Recycling Centres, Waste Transfer Stations, Landfills and Composting Facilities.

Urbaser is committed to minimising the amount of waste sent to landfill and maximising the reuse and recycling potential of the materials we manage, and have since expanded further into the waste treatment sector through the construction of a Mechanical and Biological Treatment facility in Essex to treat 400,000 tonnes of waste per year and is currently in the process of constructing a new Energy from Waste Facility in Gloucestershire. Once fully operational, this facility will process 190,000 tonnes of waste annually, including that from Cheltenham where the company is headquartered, generating 14.5 MW of electricity for export which is enough to power 25,000 homes.

In 2010 Urbaser took its first steps into the municipal services sector, winning a Street Cleansing contract with the Isle of Wight council. Since then, the municipal division has grown exponentially and Urbaser currently provides Waste and Recycling Collections services in Bournemouth, Burnley, Gosport, East Hertfordshire and North Hertfordshire; Street Cleansing services in Windsor and Maidenhead, Waltham Forest, Burnley, Gosport, East Hertfordshire and North Hertfordshire; Grounds Maintenance services in Waltham Forest and Public Convenience Cleansing services in St. Albans. Its most recent municipal contract award has been to provide Waste and Recycling Collections and Street Cleansing services as part of a combined contract for the Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge & Malling Borough Councils.

The successes achieved through this 20 year expansion into the UK waste sector has seen Urbaser achieve a consolidated turnover of c£80m per annum, with over 800 employees when the new contract in Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge and Malling goes live in spring 2019.

Javier Peiro, Managing Director of Urbaser Ltd, said of the anniversary: “I am extremely proud of the progress made by Urbaser in the UK over the past 20 years. The hard work and dedication towards the communities and our clients by all of our employees has been outstanding and essential to growing the company into what can be seen today. I look forward to the next 20 years and seeing the company develop even further”.

Urbaser identified the UK market as the perfect environment to continue their international growth. Through this and other similar expansions, Urbaser currently has a global presence servicing more than 50 million people in 25 countries, through a network of more than 160 subsidiary companies with over 40,000 employees and is the third largest environmental services provider in Europe.