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HSE GUIDANCE ON COLLECTION AND PROCESSING

EUROPEAN WASTE GENERATION AND PACKAGING INDICATORS

BETTER WASTE REGULATION IN SCOTLAND

'GREEN' INCINERATOR COULD HEAT SCHOOLS

PUBLIC EXHIBITION 19 & 20TH FEBRUARY AT THE WATERSIDE INN

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£50M ENERGY PLANT PLAN FOR SALMOND'S POLITICAL BACKYARD

£50M PLAN TO TURN RUBBISH INTO POWER FOR NORTH-EAST HOMES

£50M PLAN TO TURN RUBBISH INTO POWER

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ENERGY FROM WASTE – THE BURNING ISSUE

'Green' Incinerator Could Heat Schools

Residents in the North-east may be among the first to become customers of a pioneering new form of waste disposal. Aberdeenshire councillors have called for more information about so-called 'green' incinerators. Not only do they burn rubbish, they also produce heat which can be used to heat houses, businesses and schools.

One of the heat-producing incinerators is already in action in Dundee. And a delegation from Aberdeenshire plans to visit one in Shetland - run by environment agency Sepa - in March.

Now 850 customers are being supplied by the Lerwick plant, which provides hot water and heating in hundreds of homes as well as classrooms, the museum and leisure centre. Another, in Portsmouth, releases enough energy to heat 25,000 homes every day.

Local authorities have been ordered by the Scottish Government to step up their recycling or composting of household waste from the current 30% to 60% by 2020. Stonehaven and Lower Deeside councillor Mike Sullivan said: "If you look at the waste-disposal figures for other European countries, those which have these new incinerators have brought about a major reduction in the amount of waste sent to landfill."

However, Friends of the Earth policy director Stuart Hay said: "The priority is always to prevent waste in the first place - that is the way to save energy, then to reuse and recycle."