A controversial waste incinerator planned for Aberdeen has come under renewed criticism from a new report which warns it could become a “stranded asset”.
The publication, by Robert Gordon University academic Bob Pringle, said that the £150million Torry energy from waste (EFW) plant is only an “interim solution” to the city’s waste problems.
City councillors sparked a storm of protest last October when they backed the Tullos project, which will convert waste from homes in the Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray into energy.
The facility, which will have a 260ft chimney, aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the local authority, in advance of tough Scottish Government regulations due to be imposed by 2021.
Council chiefs have long argued that the incinerator is “needed” and that it will reduce waste, create jobs and help heat homes in the area.
But Mr Pringle’s report warns the Granite City could be quickly left behind with new technology being developed.
It reads: “Aberdeen was the last city in the UK to build high rise flats; we don’t want it to be the last to build an EFW.
“The three local authorities can either take the risk of building what could become a stranded asset… or delay action for a decade to see how schemes for reuse, recycling, anaerobic digestion and compositing increase and improve and how well big businesses succeed in removing plastics from the waste stream.
“The EFW plant will operate over a period of 25 years plus.
“Over this period, environmental directives… are likely to radically change the nature and volume of what we dispose of as waste.”
In March, the European Union warned that recycling must be the focus of all waste projects and that disposing of waste in landfill or incineration is the “least favourable option”.
But councillor Barney Crockett, a supporter of the project who sparked controversy with his suggestion that the plant could become a site for picnics and ski slopes, said there was “no option” but to proceed.
He said: “We can’t bury the waste so you either have to send it to landfill or other plants elsewhere, whether they are in
England or in Europe. Councils have no other option.
“This technology is the norm across Europe and investing in it is absolutely necessary.”
