Since opening in 2006 the site has dealt with garden waste but the newly completed tunnels mean it will now be able to process 24,000 tonnes of both source-segregated and commingled green and food waste annually.
Mr Russell welcomed the completion of the site's expansion, which began last September (see letsrecycle.com story) as an important element in efforts to move towards waste minimisation.
“The extension to Deerdykes is precisely the kind of forward-thinking that we want local authorities to undertake as we push to minimise the waste generated in Scotland,” he said.
The Cumbernauld plant is the chosen destination for food waste from four of the seven councils participating in collection trials that were launched by Remade Scotland in late February (see letsrecycle.com story).
Energy
Alongside its composting facilities, efforts are also continuing at Deerdykes to develop a process of anaerobic digestion for both food and green waste, with the aim of powering both the plant and possibly neighbouring sites, as well as offering the potential for eventually selling the energy back to the National Grid.
A spokesman for the facility's owners, Scottish Water Waste Services, told letsrecycle.com that planning permission for the AD facility had been granted and the contract for the development was set to go out to tender, with a view to being signed by May, allowing the design and build process to begin soon after.
The plant will have the capacity to process 30,000 tonnes of waste per year in AD, with room to allow modular units to be bolted on, increasing the annual capacity by another 30,000 tonnes.
He also confirmed that the digestate produced by the AD process would be utilised in Pod, the branded compost produced and marketed by the plant.
And, commenting on the use of the energy to be produced by AD, he added: “Once the plant is up and running it will be almost immediately self-sufficient, and the infrastructure is already in place to pump it out to the surrounding industrial estate.”
Register for free to comment