Viridor unveiled plans for the facility in February, and was expected to submit planning permission in May for the proposed plant to process up to 330,000 tonnes per year of residual waste (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, in a statement, a spokesperson for Viridor said this will not be the case “following a review” of its development portfolio.
The spokesperson said: “A decision has been taken to end our interest in developing an Energy Recovery Facility at Overwood Farm, near Stonehouse in South Lanarkshire.
“This is not a decision that has been taken lightly and follows a detailed evaluation of the project”.
The company said it is a “committed participant” in the Scottish resources sector, having invested over £500 million in key recycling and reprocessing infrastructure. This includes its Dunbar Efw, around 30 miles east of Edinburgh, and a facility in Glasgow.
The spokesperson added: “Our Scottish facilities will play a major role in delivering our ambitions to become a net zero business by 2040 and climate positive by 2045. We are continuing to actively explore how our existing and future facilities can help to deliver Scotland’s climate, environmental and circular economy goals,” it concluded.
A spokesperson for the council told letsrecycle.com: “We have no knowledge why the company decided not to submit.”
This is not a decision that has been taken lightly
- Viridor spokesperson
Plans
When unveiling the plans, Viridor said the proposal was a “direct response” to the Scottish Government’s zero waste strategy and the forthcoming ban on the landfilling of food, paper, garden and any other biodegradable household waste by 2025.
Viridor said the facility would generate around 34.1MW of electricity, of which 30.7MWe will be exported to the national grid.
Viridor added that the facility would be “very similar” to Viridor’s existing Dunbar EfW plant. This means it would have been designed to be ‘combined heat and power enabled’, so that heat in the form of steam or hot water could be exported to other local users as future opportunities arise.
Review
The decision to pull plans for the plant come amid an ongoing “review of incineration” by the Scottish Government, being led by former CIWM chief Dr Colin Church.
In November 2021, the Scottish Government said it must be notified of any planning applications involving such facilities (see letsrecycle.com story).
According to the Scottish government, there are six operational municipal waste EfW plants in the country.
Two of these are owned by Viridor in Dunbar and Glasgow, while the others are operated by FCC (near Edinburgh), Levenseat (Lanarkshire), MVV (Dundee) and Shetland council.
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