Ivan McKee MSP was speaking at an online launch event for Viridor’s Scottish Circular Economy and Innovation Park, which the waste management company says would bring together energy-intensive recycling and reprocessing plants with facilities which produce the required energy.
Mr McKee said: “Scotland’s climate and environmental priorities are intrinsically linked with economic growth and jobs. They are and must be part of a singular mission.
“As we plan our strategic economic recovery from Covid-19, now is the time to re-imagine the Scotland around us and to begin building a greener, fairer and more equal society and economy focused on wellbeing.
“This includes identifying the infrastructure investments this transition will require.”
Viridor already runs a glass recycling plant at Newhouse, a recycling facility at Bargeddie and an energy from waste (EfW) plant at Dunbar. It also operates the Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre for Glasgow city council.
Princess Royal
Princess Anne also spoke at the event, via a pre-recorded message. She told delegates the Scottish Circular Economy and Innovation Park was “an important and practical demonstration of what should be happening”.
She said: “I am encouraged to hear that, in these challenging times, this vision matches innovation and investment with job creation, giving our young people the opportunity to play a major role in the world they will inherit.”
Princess Anne has previously praised the link between recycling and energy at the opening of Cory Environnmental’s EfW plant in the London borough of Bexley in 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story).
Park
Viridor says a dedicated Circular Economy Innovation Centre would be a tested for universities, start-ups and Scottish business to develop solutions to eliminate waste.
“Big problems need big ambition”
It would do this by tackling the hardest to recycle products and putting partnership at heart of the vision, the company says.
Dr Tim Rotheray, Viridor’s director of innovation and regulation, proposed the centre could be located in Dunbar.
Viridor says it is also preparing a planning application to East Lothian Council for a plastics reprocessing plant at Dunbar which would draw heat and power from its energy recovery facility (see letsrecycle.com story).
Event
The online launch attracted an audience of stakeholders across the Scottish government, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Enterprise, Zero Waste Scotland, local government, business and academia, Viridor says.
The event featured a debate with panel members including Mr McKee, the chief executive of SEPA Terry A’Hearn and Alison McRae, the senior director of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, amongst others.
Speaking after the event, Mr A’Hearn said: “The scale of the environmental challenge is significant, with a real urgency to act but globally we’ve often seen too much talk and too little action.
“Big problems need big ambition and that’s why we really need new ideas, new investment, new approaches and as we saw, partners committed to achieving the economic, environmental and social benefits of a circular economy here in Scotland.”
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