Ash from the Aberdeen incinerator in East Tullos will be sent more than 100 miles away to Fife, instead of a short drive away to Portlethen.
The new £156 million Ness Energy from Waste facility has recently started its hot commissioning phase, which is actually firing up the incinerator to test it out.
Once it’s fully operational, it’s been estimated the plant will generate about 26,232 tonnes of incinerator bottom ash (IBA) a year.
Plans had originally been in place to store and process this ash at a new facility which was to be built at Cairnrobin Quarry, just north of Portlethen and just under five miles away from the Aberdeen incinerator.
At the time, it was estimated the Rock Solid Processing facility earmarked for creation at Cairnrobin would receive around seven lorry loads a day from the incinerator, each carrying 27 tonnes of IBA material.
In December 2021, Aberdeenshire Council approved plans for such a site to be built.
But ultimately, the Portlethen site was not chosen by Rock Solid for further development.
Instead, the IBA will be transported to Rock Solid’s facility at Goathill Quarry, in Cowdenbeath, Fife — about 111 miles away via the A90.
What will happen to the Aberdeen incinerator ash once it goes to Fife?
The Aberdeen incinerator is designed to burn 150,000 tonnes of unrecyclable material every year from Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray councils once it’s fully up and running.
It will generate both heat and electricity, but once the process is completed, there’s still a material made up of a mix of ash and metals to get rid of.
This material is the IBA.
Once processed, it can be used for all sorts of purposes.
These include a replacement for sand in cement production, or as an aggregate for use in construction.
A spokeswoman for Acciona, the contractors operating the Aberdeen incinerator, said: “The IBA will be removed from the site by our specialist sub-contractor Rock Solid Processing Limited, and taken to their Scottish processing facility for recovery and recycling.”
Other residual waste from the East Tullos plant will be taken even further afield.
She added: “The other residues will be removed from site by our specialist sub-contractor Oco Technology Limited, and taken to their specialist processing facility in Leeds for recycling.”
Acciona said these solutions for the IBA and other waste from the incinerator will be used “for the foreseeable future”.
Conversation