Veolia has secured a new integrated waste management contract with the Australian city of Gold Coast. According to the French environmental services concern, the contract is to run for an initial term of seven years, over which it would generate AUD280m in revenue (ca. €174m) for Veolia. The French concern put the value of the contract over its full extended term, including potential extensions of six and five years. at around €500m.
Under the terms of the new deal, Veolia is to operate three community waste and recycling centres and two landfills, while the city retains ownership of the waste handling facilities and control over waste rates, fees and charges. A key objective of the contract is to "substantially increase current recovery rates; the initial improvement target is 5 percentage points to be achieved by 2025. Veolia said it would enable the city to avoid more than 77,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.
In addition to the landfills and recycling centres, Veolia and its 100 employees working under the contract would operate also run 14 logistics vehicles and work with the region's social enterprise organisations to drive further environmental outcomes.
Veolia noted that the contract was aligned to the Australian government’s broader ambitions of boosting the national waste recovery rate to 80 per cent. Gold Coast's recovery rate was still below the national average of 60 per cent, the concern said in an earlier statement.
Located in the state of Queensland, around 66km from Brisbane, Gold Coast is the sixth largest city in Australia with a population of over 600,000. The city, a popular tourist destination, is scheduled to host a portion of the 2032 Olympics.
Veolia describes itself as the top player on the Australian solid waste management market following its acquisition of some of Suez's Australian assets in the course of the 2021 merger. At the presentation of its annual results for 2022 at the beginning of the month, Veolia also listed Australia among its "key countries for solid waste", accounting for 12 per cent of solid waste revenue last year.
