Although there has traditionally been opposition to burning waste in Scotland, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) this summer formerly backed the technology (see letsrecycle.com story).
The plant in question is also expected to prevent waste being sent hundreds of miles away to landfill following the closure of the districts only landfill site at Portree in March, by treating it at source.
By providing heat as well as electricity, it is also expected to be much more energy-efficient that other energy from waste technologies.
Councillor John Laing, chairman of the Highland council's transport, environmental and community services committee (TEC), who helped make the decision, said: “The project is in keeping with the ideas of extracting value form waste and of treating waste as close to the point or arising as possible.”
The Highlands council now plans to identify potential development sites and negotiate with potential end-users for heat produced and prepare tenders to build the plant.
Cllr Laing said: “The preliminary work to date shows significant environmental benefit from such a scheme being put in place. However, further work must be carried out to establish the suitability of sites, and importantly the costs of the scheme together with the potential benefits in the terms of heat generation for local residents.”
Recycling
In 2006/07, Skye and Lochalsh produced a total of 9,510 tonnes of municipal waste. Of this, 8634 was sent to landfill and only 876 tonnes (9.2%) was recycled. This is much lower than the overall rate for the Highlands of 26.1%.
In order to improve this performance, and bring its recycling rate up to 30-40%, the Highlands council is also proposing to introduce a kerbside recycling collection for paper, cans, plastic bottles, textiles and card using 240 or 360 litre wheeled bins. This will be in addition to the promotion of home composting.
Writing in a document on the progress of the waste treatment strategy for the West Highlands, waste management officer Ewan Huc said: “Owing to the low population density, and the consequently high costs of collection due to high travel distances it is likely that the recyclables will be collected once every four weeks. Recyclables will be transported to a new Materials Recycling Facility in the Inner Moray Firth for processing.”
Mr Huc predicted the schemes would “result in a recycling/composting rate of approximately 30-40%.”
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