Twenty full-time jobs are due to be created in Thurso as part of a nationwide bottle and can recycling operation.
A vacant site in the town’s Ormlie Industrial Estate is being primed to be one of the eight bulking stations to service the Scottish Government’s deposit return scheme.
Subject to planners approving a new perimeter fence and other changes, the building is expected to go live at the proposed launch of the venture in August.
The initiative involves individuals paying a 20p deposit for single-use drinks cans and bottles, which they redeem when they return them.
READ: Scotland’s 20p bottle and can recycling rules: Five key questions
The base at Morven House, which is opposite Thurso Cinema, is being designed to handle more than 25,000 tonnes of plastic, metal and glass per year.
A fleet of four vehicles would make eight return journeys a day to collect the material and a further six trips a week to one of the three national sorting centres.
Biffa Waste Services, which has the contract to operate the scheme, expects the far north base to employ up to 20.
The jobs would include shop floor operators, drivers, office staff and logistics personnel.
The Buckinghamshire-based firm has pledged to seek to fill the posts locally.
It has already received planning consent to use the building, owned by local businessman Frank Bremner, for storage.
The freshly tabled application seeks permission to erect a 2.4 metre high perimeter fence; a weighbridge; a covered glass storage bay; a leachate storage tank; parking provision; and amendments to the internal layout.
Other bulking stations are being planned at Ullapool, Skye, Oban, Inverness, Dundee, Kelso and Dumfries.
The Scottish Government had hoped to have the deposit return scheme up and running in 2017.
READ: New 20p charge for bottles and cans will start in Scotland this year
More than 500 hospitality leaders last year called for the initiative to be revised and delayed further because of the “catastrophic” effect it would have in terms of of increased costs and admin for businesses.
One retailer has launched a legal action to have the scheme further delayed.
The Scottish Government says it has issued new guidance on retailers who can opt out of the scheme if they do not wish to operate as a return point.
Scheme to ‘transform’ how Scotland recycles
A spokesman said: “The deposit return scheme will transform how Scotland recycles and prevent billions of bottles and cans from ending up as waste.
“We’re focused on making sure that the scheme is a success and helps protect Scotland’s environment for generations to come.
“It will recycle billions of bottles and cans a year and forms a vital part of our plans to create a circular economy.”It will cut climate emissions, tackle littering, and directly address public concerns about the impact of plastic and other waste on our environment.
“Similar schemes have already proven successful in many European countries and we are confident that ours will deliver similar results.”
Conversation