SITA Environmental Solutions has become the likely replacement for WorleyParsons in a Macquarie Bank consortium that has won the right to build an $80 million waste recycling project in Perth’s northern suburbs. Mindarie Regional Council, which handles waste management for the City of Perth and six other municipalities, approved a resolution last week allowing the Macquarie consortium, known as BioVision 2020, to replace Worley with SITA as the asset manager and owner’s engineer. If the deal is completed, it would represent a substantial expansion of SITA’s activities in Western Australia. The opportunity for SITA to join the consortium came after Worley walked away from the project, despite having spent the past five years working on it. Worley decided in April to focus on its core business, which involves large and complex engineering projects in the resources sector. That left its BioVision consortium partners, Macquarie Bank and Canadian technology supplier Conporec, with the task of finding a new engineer. The project involves construction of a 100,000 tonnes per year municipal waste recycling and composting facility north of Wanneroo. It is part of a national trend for councils to establish waste treatment facilities so they can divert waste away from landfills. SITA’s move to join the consortium followed its acquisition last year of a 50 per cent shareholding in Queensland company CEC Resource Recovery Pty Ltd, which operates two waste treatment plants on the east coast.