WASTE firm Biffa is taking over Somerset's 16 recycling sites from Viridor as part of a £126million deal.

Viridor, which was acquired by global investment company KKR for £4.2billion in July 2020, has managed the sites for Somerset Waste Partnership for many years.

Biffa will run the sites for Somerset Waste Partnership, whose managing director Mickey Green says customers will notice no change apart from signage.

Biffa is also acquiring Viridor's anaerobic digestion plant near Bridgwater, which transforms 22,500 tonnes of Somerset's food waste into electricity, and the composting sites that turn almost 40,000 tonnes of the county's garden waste into the Revive soil conditioner.

Mr Green added that SWP and Somerset County Council are carrying out "due diligence checks" to ensure Somerset residents' interests are fully protected.

Viridor staff are expected to transfer to Biffa employment from September.

Worth £126 million, the proposed sale has been approved by the Competitions and Markets Authority.

It does not include Viridor's Avonmouth energy-from-waste plant that generates electricity from all of Somerset's kerbside rubbish and about 60 per cent of recycle site refuse.

Reflecting SWP's own plans, Biffa's business ambitions include fostering local waste education programmes and supporting viable reuse schemes.