Council leader visits Aberdeen’s new £27 million Materials Recycling Facility
15 September 2016
Aberdeen City Council leader Jenny Laing today (Thursday 15 September) paid a visit to a major new development in to see progress on the construction of a facility that will help Aberdonians to reduce their impact on the environment. .
The £27m facility is being developed by SUEZ recycling and recovery on behalf of Aberdeen City Council. It will eventually divert 71,000 tonnes of Aberdeen’s waste from landfill every year, helping the city to meet Scottish Government recycling and recovery targets and save residents £5m in landfill tax per year when it begins operations in summer 2017.
The new centre will comprise a Materials Recycling Facility where mixed recyclables, collected from homes and businesses, will be sorted before being forwarded on for re-processing; a Refuse Derived Fuel Facility that will process residual waste – the waste materials that remain once all viable attempts to recycle them have taken place – to extract metals. The remaining material will then be securely baled prior to onward transfer out of the area, where it will be diverted from landfill and put to better use in the recovery of energy.
Councillor Laing, who was accompanied on the site tour by councillors Jean Morrison, Zero Waste sib-committee Convenor, and Finance Convenor Willie Young, said: “We are delighted to visit today and see the Mixed Recycling Facility construction taking shape. This is major investment for the future of the city which will not only result in significant long term savings in landfill taxes for Aberdonians but will also create new jobs.
“And most importantly, the centre, will help us meet our environmental targets as set out in our long term City Waste Strategy and Scotland’s Zero Waste plan. We are already taking important steps in this direction with the introduction of our kerbside mixed recycling scheme. ”
Tim Hughes, SUEZ Project Development Manager, said: "We’re delighted with progress to date. Construction is proceeding according to plan and we’re confident that the project will be delivered on time and on budget at which point it will begin to make an enormous contribution to the city’s ability to recycle and recover its waste.”
The development represents an investment of approximately £27m in Aberdeen and has employed up to 65 people during construction. A further 40 new, permanent jobs will be created when operations begin in the summer of 2017.
The development site will also include a replacement vehicle depot for the council’s waste collection fleet, which is currently located on Powis Terrace and shared office space for both SUEZ and Aberdeen City Council.
Construction started on 5th January 2016 and despite initial ground works being hampered by ‘Storm Frank,’ the project will complete on schedule in the summer of 2017.
The project is being managed on behalf of SUEZ, by its principle contractor, Morrison Construction. Morrison’s sub-contractors and supply chain, which includes structural engineers, mechanical and electrical services and steelwork fabricators are all based in Scotland with 15 of its 18 contractors all based in the North East region, ensuring that the majority of civil and building work is undertaken by local firms.
The new facility will also have an Energy Efficiency ‘A rating’ and a number of energy efficient techniques have been incorporated into its design, including solar panels on the building roof. Energy will also be recovered through site processing operations to provide renewable heat and power to the three storey site offices. Energy efficient LED lights will be used throughout the site and SUEZ has been working with the manufacturers of its processing equipment to reduce its power demand.
With construction of the site buildings nearing completion, work will begin in October on the installation of the equipment that will process the city’s waste and recycling. This will take around 16 weeks to complete after which there will be a period of commissioning to calibrate the plant and to ensure it is working correctly. Once testing is complete, SUEZ will fully take over the operation of the new facility in the summer of 2017.
Following consultation with local residents on the plans for the development in 2015, all construction traffic to and from the site is routed through the Altens East industrial estate, avoiding the Coast Road and residential areas. These arrangements will remain in place once operations begin in 2017.