FCC wins Dallas single-stream recycling contract

Madrid-based FCC (Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas), a Spanish environmental services, infrastructure and water management group, reports it has secured a contract to build and operate a plant to manage all of the single-stream recyclables in Dallas for a period of 15 years. The company's U.S. headquarters is in The Woodlands, Texas.

The contract, which FCC says could be extended for a further 10 years, is expected to have a turnover volume of around $300 million during the course of its lifetime.

A spokesman for the company says construction of the materials recovery facility (MRF) is expected to begin at the start of 2016, with operations commencing by early 2017. The company says the automatic sorting plant will use the latest sorting and classification techniques, including artificial vision, as well as optical and gravimetric sorting machines.

According to a press release issued by Burns & McDonnell, the Kansas City, Missouri-based construction and design firm serving as an advisor to the city of Dallas, the $20 million facility, to be constructed at the McCommas Bluff Landfill in Dallas, is expected to process up to 120,000 tons of material per year.

Burns & McDonnell reports it advised the city on preparing a competitive proposal process that allowed companies to propose either a processing services agreement, a new facility on a 15-acre site at the landfill, or both.

"With our current recycling processing agreement expiring in December 2016, we sought to develop a request for proposals that included an opportunity for a meaningful public-private partnership," says Kelly High, sanitation director for the city of Dallas.

Burns & McDonnell reports that seven firms responded to the request for proposals, with FCC submitting the strongest proposal with its plan to build a state-of-the-art MRF.

Scott Pasternak, project manager for Burn & McDonnell, observes, "This will be the largest public-private partnership of its kind in Texas. This partnership between the city and FCC should provide a solid foundation for continued efforts to increase recycling in the city of Dallas and surrounding communities." 

Mexican businessman Carlos Slim became the largest shareholder (25.6 percent) in FCC Group at the end of 2014. Bill Gates also holds a 5.7 percent stake in the group.

In September 2015, FCC was awarded a contract in Orange County, Florida—the first municipal solid waste (MSW) collection contract given to a Spanish company in the U.S.

At the end of 2014 FCC also secured the contract for biosolids management in Houston. The company says the recent awards highlight the international growth of FCC's Environmental Services Division which includes contracts in Central and Eastern Europe.