The waste company invested £30 million into the rebuild at the Altens East site, including building new offices, a waste transfer station and a visitor centre.
The rebuild started in March 2024 and was originally expected to be completed that summer.
The waste company said that early 2025 saw several important phases reached in the start, including the completion of the exterior and interior contractors mobilising on site.
The latter includes Sutco which has been appointed to install sorting equipment for the mixed waste streams that arrive at Altens East.
Birgit Balkenhoff, project manager from Sutco, said: “Together with Suez and Aberdeen city council, we are pleased to contribute to the advancement of Aberdeen’s recycling infrastructure towards the Zero Waste Strategy.
“This new facility, in possibly the nicest MRF location in Europe, includes several upgrades implementing the latest technology and will substantially aid [the council] in recovering recyclable material from waste.
“We are going to take out anything that can be recycled and turn it into quality products. This project marks a significant step forward in sustainable waste management, and we are proud to be part of it.”
The MRF will undergo a testing and commissioning phase before becoming fully operational in mid-2025.
The visitor centre and waste transfer station are expected to be fully complete and in use ahead of the rest of the site in spring 2025.
Colin Forshaw, production operations manager for Suez, added: “It is fantastic to see Sutco out on site, installing the machinery that will enable us to start separating out the recyclable materials from households here in Aberdeen once again.
“It’s a busy year for our team in Aberdeen, with lots of positives in relation to waste and recycling and we’re looking forward to being able to host community groups here in the new onsite visitor education centre to tell them more.”
The visitor centre will host groups and schools who wish to learn more about waste management.
2022 fire at Suez’s Aberdeen MRF
A fire was reported at the Aberdeenshire MRF in the late afternoon of 8 July 2022.
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said it sent nine engines and “a number of specialist resources” to attend the fire which took several days to put out.
The fire effort caused Scottish Water to issue a warning about water outages, low pressure and discoloured water to the surrounding streets.
Contract with Aberdeen city council
Suez is contracted by Aberdeen city council to manage the area’s waste and recycling.
Aberdeen city council co-leader councillor Ian Yuill said: “Having a local recycling facility back in place will be a vital step towards a full-service solution for improving the quality and quantity of the recyclables we send for reprocessing. Having our own facility for managing our recycling helps us provide the best possible recycling collection service for our citizens.”
Aberdeen city council’s net zero, environment and transport committee vice-convenor councillor Miranda Radley added: “The progress on the rebuild at Altens is pleasing to see. With a recycling facility in place, it will help us to provide the best possible recycling collection service for our citizens.”
When completed, the rebuilt MRF will have a similar annual capacity to before of 60,000 tonnes and will process household mixed recycling including glass, cardboard, newspaper, plastics and metals.
The previous site received waste from the Aberdeen, Angus and Highland councils. Suez confirmed that the MRF will continue to receive waste from households “across Aberdeen and Scotland”.
Suez officially opened the Altens East MRF in Aberdeen in October 2017. It was equipped by BHS and originally cost £27 million to build.
One month before the fire, Aberdeen and Suez had agreed to extend its contract to 2029, which was formally signed in May 2023.
The extension was worth £28 million in total.
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