Highland Council scraps incinerator plans
Following growing concern about the adverse effects of incineration, the council cites public opposition, emissions reduction, and the large amount of plastic being burned as the reasons for the decision.
Highland Council has abandoned its plans to construct a new incinerator, which would have been capable of burning up to 65,000 tonnes of household waste per year.
The decision has been widely praised by environmental campaigners and local residents who opposed the facility. Officials highlighted several reasons for the cancellation, including growing public concern, the need to reduce emissions, and the vast amount of plastic already being burned.
Instead, Highland Council will extend its current waste management strategy for three years, which will include sending waste to an existing incinerator in Dunbar. Longer-term plans could involve tendering for third-party companies to manage waste that cannot be recycled or reused.
Kim Pratt, Circular Economy Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, commented on the decision: “The Highland Council has made a positive decision for local people and for the environment. A new incinerator would have locked them into decades of burning waste, which is a disaster for the planet and a risk to the health of people who live nearby.”
Local campaigner, Anne Thomas, added: “We need to reduce waste and reuse and recycle it, not burn it. We will then need less incinerators. They’re also not an efficient way of generating electricity, producing more carbon emissions than coal.”
Scotland's incineration and recycling plans
Although the Scottish Government introduced a moratorium on new incinerators in 2022, significant loopholes have allowed projects already in the planning stages to proceed. Since the ban was introduced, Scotland’s incineration capacity has increased by 215,000 tonnes.
Recent analysis by the BBC has revealed that waste incineration is now the most polluting form of power generation in the UK, with only four out of 58 incinerators having approved plans to capture their emissions.
Meanwhile, recycling rates in Scotland have plateaued, stuck at approximately 43 per cent for over a decade, falling short of the government’s earlier commitment to achieve a 60 per cent recycling rate by 2020.
Highland Council’s rates fell by one per cent in the most recent figures from SEPA to 36 per cent in 2023.
In a statement from the council, Cllr Graham MacKenzie, Chair of the Communities & Place Committee, outlined the next steps: “After careful consideration and analysis it has been agreed that a merchant provider solution is considered the most appropriate long term solution to our statutory waste management obligations, and that an energy-from- waste facility within the Highlands is not considered to be a suitable course of action.
“The aim of the new collection services is to reduce the annual residual waste tonnage within Highland by nearly 9,000 tonnes, which would save 368 return transport journeys per year.”
