Viridor

Viridor logo from website

Viridor is one of the major waste and recycling companies in the UK, working with more than 150 Local Authority and corporate clients, with over 3,000 staff working from over 300 facilities spanning recycling, energy recovery and landfill.

History

Pennon emerged from the privatisation of the utility elements of the South West Water Authority in 1989. Pennon acquired Haul Waste Ltd in 1993 from English China Clay and Blue Circle Waste Management in 1995, merging it and Haul Waste Ltd under its new name, Viridor, in 1998.

Viridor acquired many other waste management and recycling companies through the late 1990's and early 2000's, including: Churngold in 2003, Wyvern Waste Services Limited in 2006, Thames Waste Management in 2004, Enviroscot Ltd, Brett Waste Management and Terry Adams Ltd.

The sale of Viridor to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) by Pennon was announced in March 2020 for £4.2bn and completed in July 2020. Since this acquisition the new owners have divested large parts of the business, in order to leave a focus on their EfW business and associated plastics recycling business. The divestment of the following parts of the business have been concluded:

• May 2021 Viridor announced the sale of their collections business and their recycling locations (excluding Crayfords Materials Recycling Facility and Pelican Reach (Plot L)) to Biffa which was completed in September 2021
• December 2021 Equitix acquired a 20% stake in Viridor Energy, comprising 11 assets of the original Viridor business (10 EfW sites and 1 PRF)
• January 2022 Viridor announced the sale of their Crayford MRF to N+P Group
• March 2022 Viridor completed the sale of their Landfill and Landfill Gas business, in its entirety, to Frank Solutions Ltd re-branded Valencia Waste Management.

In February 2023 Viridor announced the acquisition of Quantafuel ASA, a business focused on converting waste plastics to raw polymers for use in the chemicals industry for new plastics (see Chemical Recycling of Plastics).

The relative position of the top 5 waste companies, by turnover, is as follows:

Company	Turnover (million GBP) Most Recently Reported	Note On Source and Date for Most Recently Reported
Veolia	1,719	Veolia Environmental Services (UK) Ltd only, as per financial year report ending December 2021
Biffa	1,364	turnover shown net of landfill tax as per financial year report ending March 2022
FCC	795	as per proportion of Annual Report 2022 by the Group
Suez	765	as per accounts ending December 2022
Viridor	672	as per accounts published for year end March 2023

Viridor Energy Sites on WikiWaste

• Ardley EfW
• Beddington EfW
• Dunbar EfW (Oxwellmains EfW)
• Exeter Energy Recovery Facility
• Glasgow Renewable Energy and Recycling Centre (ACT)
• Lakeside EfW (Joint Venture with Grundon)
• Peterborough EfW
• Runcorn EfW
• Avonmouth RRC
• Trident Park (Cardiff ERF)

Viridor Entities Listed on WikiWaste

The divestment of the Viridor businesses set out above has not yet been fully consolidated/reflected in the entities set out below. primarily as a result of the changes not yet being fully reflected in the waste return data.

• Viridor Waste Management Ltd
• Viridor Waste (Somerset) Ltd (previously Wyvern Waste Services Limited)
• Viridor Waste (somerset) Ltd
• Viridor Ltd
• Viridor Peterborough Ltd
• Viridor Waste (Greater Manchester) Ltd now part of two contracts awarded in May 2019 to Suez with Residual Waste EFW still targeted to Viridor's Runcorn EfW facility
• Viridor Waste (Kent) Ltd (previously Brett Waste Management)
• Viridor Waste Kent Ltd
• Viridor Waste Suffolk Ltd
• Viridor Waste (Thames) Ltd previously Thames Waste Management
• Lakeside Energy From Waste Ltd joint venture with Grundon
• Viridor Enviroscot Limited previously Enviroscot Ltd