The temporary facility, which is only intended to last for five years, will come to the rescue when the main landfills for Stirling and neighbouring Clackmannanshire close in June and April 2004.
Bidding
Contractors are currently bidding for the tender to run the plant. Operations will start in June 2004 immediately after construction is completed.
The transfer station is being funded from part of a 31 million grant from the Scottish Executive's Strategic Waste Fund which Stirling was awarded last year. It is being built by Marshall Construction, next to the Lower Polmaise Stirling landfill.
Gillie Thomson of Stirling council's environment committee said: “This impressive development at Lower Polmaise is designed to give us time to look for a more permanent solution to the disposal of municipal waste in partnership with Clackmannanshire council.”
Stirling council would not reveal which companies were bidding to run the transfer station, but the successful contractor will be chosen by March.
The station will start operating in June 2004 and will handle 100,000 tonnes waste a year. It will be a temporary steel building where waste is bulked up and transported to a landfill outside Stirling.
Permanent
But by 2009, Stirling and Clackmannanshire councils aim to have developed a “more permanent and sustainable” site somewhere else.
In addition, Stirling is currently rolling out its kerbside recycling collections to all 35,000 households. Under the scheme, glass, paper, aluminium, plastics, steel and textiles collected weekly and garden waste and cardboard collected fortnightly.
The Polmaise landfill is currently being restored at a cost of 7.5 million. This will be complete by early 2007.
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