18 FEBRUARY 2009 - COVANTA PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Covanta Energy has introduced three new graduate trainees to its team, further consolidating its position in the UK waste industry.

The new members of the team are the first new graduates the company has taken on since setting up its UK office in 2005. Siobhan Bruce, aged 21, who has a degree in geography and 21 year old Alistair Walker, who studied Biology at Cardiff University, will be working closely with the company’s business development team and Sanjay Patel, a 23 year old Process Engineering graduate will be working with the company’s engineering team.

Siobhan said: “Working at Covanta is a great way to utilise my degree and I have had the opportunity to get involved in projects, in all aspects of the business, right from the start.

“I think it is time to change how we regard energy and waste, burying waste in landfill has been the more popular choice up until now but Energy-from-Waste provides new possibilities for unrecyclable waste. I really wanted a career that would help make a difference for the future and I feel that Covanta offers that.”

Covanta Energy employed its trainees through West Midlands-based organisation, Graduate Advantage which is funded by Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and matches graduates from the West Midlands region with employers.

Development Director at Covanta Energy, Peter Wright said: “We are delighted to have three such bright individuals onboard and we’re hoping this is the start of an annual graduate intake for us. Although the current economic situation is proving difficult for businesses, we believe it is important to invest in staff now to further sustain our growth in the future.”

Covanta is currently working to provide waste solutions for a number of local authorities in the UK and Ireland and has just been shortlisted to the final six bidders for a Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) and EfW facility for local authority consortium acr21 in Northern Ireland, as well as being shortlisted out of 13 possible contenders for Staffordshire County Council’s plans to build a 300,000 tonne per annum EfW facility which will treat household waste after recycling from neighbouring councils, as well as Staffordshire itself.