FCC earns Spanish contract renewal

Waste and recycling company will continue to serve Bilboa, Spain.


The city council of Bilbao, Spain, has awarded a joint venture contract in which FCC Environment holds the largest stake. The contract is for FCC to collect waste and recyclables in Bilbao, and to clean the streets there, and for FCC to handle collection at Mercabilbao wholesale food locations. The contract is for four years with a possible extension of two more years, according to FCC, and has a potential overall value of €173.4 million ($207.1 million).

This is the sixth contract connecting FCC Medio Ambiente (the Spanish brand of FCC Environment) with Bilbao city council without interruption since 1972.

Bilbao has nearly 350,000 inhabitants and with this contract more than 144,000 metric tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) and recyclable material is likely to be handled in 2018. It will be removed and transferred to various handlers for treatment, the main destination being the Arraiz-Artigas environmental management complex.

FCC will renew more than 80 percent of the current waste collection fleet (201 new vehicles and 47 reconditioned). The company says it also is “committed to environment-friendly technologies, since it will incorporate 62 electric, non-polluting vehicles in the service, forming 25 percent of the fleet.”

In addition, FCC says to boost the recycling percentage in Bilbao for the next six years, its “selective organic matter collection” will be extended to all of Bilbao (1,400 additional containers). A side-loading collection system will be implemented, the same currently used for the collection of other materials (black bag waste, packaging and commercial cardboard). Recycling services for paper, cardboard, plastics and used oils also will be retained, says FCC.

FCC says it is committed to reaching recovery rates through selective collection of 50 percent of MSW generated by 2020, complying with European Union and Spanish laws.

The environmental services division of the FCC Group currently serves more than 59 million people in more than 5,000 municipalities in 13 countries. It has a network of more than 200 recycling and recovery facilities that process more than 24 million metric tons of material each year. This includes 10 existing waste-to-energy projects with a capacity of more than 2.6 million tons and 300 megawatts of power output.