Suez Wins €510m Waste Treatment and Energy Recovery Contract in Southwestern France

Suez has secured a 12-year public service concession from the inter-municipal authority Sydetom66 to operate and redevelop the Arc Iris waste treatment and energy recovery site near Perpignan in southwestern France. Awarded through a competitive tender process in partnership with Banque des Territoires, the contract runs from 2026 to 2038 and is valued at €510 million, with Suez’s share estimated at nearly €420 million and planned investments of about €65.9 million. The Arc Iris facility handles household waste for around 500,000 permanent residents in the Pyrénées-Orientales and parts of the neighboring Aude department, with the population rising to over one million during the peak tourist season. The agreement covers three facilities at the site, including an existing waste-to-energy plant with a capacity of 240,000 tonnes per year, a new 40,000-tonne-per-year sorting center, and a pre-treatment facility for bulky non-recyclable waste from civic amenity sites. Suez plans to boost energy production to 55,000 MWh of heat and 135,000 MWh of electricity annually, while expanding recycling through advanced optical sorting and artificial intelligence technologies capable of directing up to 96 percent of materials toward recycling streams. Incinerator bottom ash will be reused for road construction, and the redevelopment will respect the site’s existing architecture while reducing its environmental footprint