Keenan Recycling bags Zero Waste Scotland investment

The money comes from Zero Waste Scotland’s Circular Economy Investment Fund, an £18 million pot which provides funds for small and medium-sized businesses based in Scotland.

Such investments are intended to support projects that deliver growth in the circular economy.

Louise McGregor, head of circular economy at Zero Waste Scotland, said: “The circular economy seeks to eliminate all waste by keeping materials in circulation for as long as possible.

“By increasing efforts to salvage more organic waste, Keenan Recycling is making best use of resources that could have otherwise ended up in landfill.

“This is made even more important by the fact that food waste harms the environment as it gives off methane, a potent greenhouse gas, when left to rot.”

Linwood

Due to open in March 2020, the plant will unpack and process food waste, turning it into liquidised fuel that can be shared with local anaerobic digester (AD) plants for conversion into green energy.

The project will cost £1.7 million in total, and follows the trial of a biofuel plant undertaken by Keenan Recycling at its former headquarters in New Deer, Aberdeenshire.

Processing more than 100,000 tonnes of organic waste annually, Keenan already supplies AD plants throughout Scotland and the north of England.

Anaerobic digestion

Gregor Keenan, operations director at Keenan Recycling, said: “We have always been passionate about having complete control of the waste material we are handling, from the moment it’s collected, through to processing.

“When we collect the waste, we have a chance to look in the bin and check its quality before passing it to our sites in New Deer and now Linwood.

“This ensures that there’s no contamination, which is a huge issue for AD plants.

“Any contamination results in a thick layer of non-organic material which has no gas-making potential and therefore reduces the profit of the operation to convert it into green energy.”

Wardley

In September Keenan Recycling agreed a deal with Gap Organics to supply a new AD plant near Gateshead with organic waste (see letsrecycle.com story).

Developers of the 70,000 tonne per year capacity facility, named Wardley Biogas, say the plant will open in February 2020 (see letsrecycle.com story).