New Materials Recovery Facility Design and Build - Lancashire Renewables

Lancashire Renewables Limited (LRL) is seeking market engagement from experienced MRF designers, builders, process-equipment integrators, and principal contractors to inform a business case for a new Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) at Farington Waste Recovery Park in Leyland, Lancashire. Background: LRL's existing MRF, commissioned 15 years ago, currently processes approximately 50,000 of 65,000 tonnes of dry mixed recyclables annually. The facility operates at 16 tonnes per hour but faces capacity constraints, ageing infrastructure, and limited ability to recover additional materials such as paper, card, cartons and flexible plastics. An independent feasibility study identified a new advanced MRF as the most robust long-term solution, with an estimated project cost of approximately £20 million and delivery period of 3-4 years. Opportunity: This is a preliminary market engagement (not a tender) to validate the feasibility study's cost, programme, technical and delivery assumptions. LRL welcomes responses from individual organisations or consortia capable of turnkey, EPC or EPCM delivery. Key Project Requirements: The new facility should process 64,000-67,000 tonnes annually; enable full on-site processing; improve recovery rates and output purity; provide flexible plastic, carton, paper and card recovery; utilise existing building shell and site infrastructure where practical; maintain operations during transition; incorporate advanced process control, automation and optical sorting where justified; and provide redundancy and future flexibility. Engagement Structure: A two-stage process comprising an initial expression of interest followed by site visits and structured feedback from selected participants. LRL will use feedback to test project costs, understand proportionate technical solutions, assess realistic timescales, identify key risks, determine preferred contracting models, and ultimately assess market capability for a future procurement. Note: Contract dates provided are indicative placeholders only. Actual dates will be determined following completion of this market engagement exercise and subsequent business case approval.