The UK arm of the global resource-management group Veolia, running household recycling, energy-from-waste plants, hazardous waste and energy services for councils and businesses.
Veolia UK describes itself as the UK leader in resource management. It looks after waste, water and energy for councils, industry and public bodies, with the aim of building a circular economy, where materials are reused rather than thrown away. Its UK services include collecting and recycling household waste, running energy recovery facilities (plants that burn waste that cannot be recycled to make electricity and heat), treating hazardous waste, and managing energy for buildings. Veolia's UK page says it has about 14,000 colleagues across the UK and Ireland.
The UK business has a long history. It traces its start to 1966, when Sir Derek Ezra founded Associated Heat Services to manage energy on customers' sites. Its first refuse collection contract was with Broadland Council in 1990, and in 1993 it signed the first of ten large waste partnerships with Birmingham City Council, which included an energy recovery facility. Later contracts included Hampshire (1994), Sheffield (2001) and Leeds, and its history page says it became the UK's recycling and waste market leader in 2006. Veolia's stated purpose is "ecological transformation", and the group says its work aims to help develop access to resources, preserve them and replenish them.
Veolia's UK sites include SELCHP, a low-carbon energy-from-waste site in south-east London with a district heating network; the Leeds and Battlefield energy recovery facilities; an Ellesmere Port high-temperature incineration plant; Minosus, a dry salt mine used for underground hazardous waste storage; a marine service centre at Marchwood, Southampton; and decommissioning sites in Lerwick, Shetland and Great Yarmouth. Its history page lists a regional head office at Kingswood Lakeside, Cannock. In December 2022 its former UK waste business went back to SUEZ, so the Veolia UK of today is not the same size as the one in the older history.
On culture, Veolia says it values safety and has won awards for it, such as a National Recycling Award for innovation in health and safety in 2009. It was named Business in the Community's Responsible Business of the Year in 2016, and it runs Campus Veolia UK, a training centre that grew out of the UK College of Environment and Transport opened in 1999. During the pandemic its history page says it made hand sanitiser when supplies were short and provided waste services for NHS Test and Trace. These are the company's own statements.
The roles at Veolia UK reach well beyond waste collection. There are engineers and plant operators at energy sites, chemists and technicians in hazardous waste, drivers and fleet staff, account managers who work with councils, and teams in finance, legal, data and sustainability. The company works with big names on packaging and plastics, including Nestle, Tetra Pak and Unilever, according to its history page. If you are interested in energy, chemistry, engineering or helping cities run cleanly, this is a large employer to learn about.
Website: www.veolia.co.uk
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