Veolia, along with the China State Construction Engineering Corporation, has been contracted for the West New Territories (WENTX) Extension resource recovery project in Nim Wan, Hong Kong.

Awarded by the Environmental Protection Department of the country, the contract covers the project’s entire life cycle, from design and construction to operation and aftercare.

The contract is worth more than €2bn.

WENTX will be equipped to process up to 90 million tonnes of non-recyclable waste over a period of two decades.

The development will ensure a 90% methane capture rate, lowering Hong Kong’s carbon impact as it continues to strive for carbon neutrality by 2050.

It is said to be able to capture the methane equivalent of approximately ten million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

The facility will be built on a circular economy model, with green power generated from the captured methane to be used to cover the project’s electrical demands. Excess biogas produced will be sent to the municipal grid as either electricity or town gas.

In addition, rock extracted from the site will be reused by the country’s construction industry to help minimise its dependence on imports.

Veolia CEO Estelle Brachlianoff said: “We are very proud to be undertaking this important project, which is part of a sustainable, less carbon-intensive future for Hong Kong.

“It is a major step in the ecological transformation of a region aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Applied to waste management in a territorial circular economy, our ecology of solutions is at the service of this fine ambition.”