SHETLAND Islands Council is to introduce “door-to-door” recycling of glass and cans next summer – but paper, card and plastic will be burned in the Gremista incinerator after that was found to be the “best practicable environmental option”.

While the notion of burning garbage may seem counterintuitive to those seeking to make the planet greener, the local authority’s stance is backed up – at least in the short term – by Zero Waste Scotland.

The waste-to-energy plant burns material from Shetland, Orkney and occasionally the Highlands, and its output then powers SHEAP’s district heating scheme for homes in Lerwick.

Because Shetland is not connected to the national grid, SHEAP has to make up any shortfall in energy using power generated by oil-fired plants. As a result, the council says, it is less environmentally damaging to incinerate material rather than recycle it.

In April 2013 the council abandoned kerbside collection of recycled material in Lerwick and Scalloway – leaving householders to take plastic, glass, newspapers and cans to collection points instead.

The latest recycling rethink is the upshot of two studies commissioned by Zero Waste Scotland, and will cost the local authority £40,000 more than it presently spends on collecting waste and recyclable materials.

Meanwhile, opening hours for the local authority’s Gremista waste management site are to be cut to allow staff to spend more time sorting industrial waste prior to incineration.

It is to switch to opening between 1pm and 6pm on weekdays and from 11am to 3pm at weekends. That is a significant reduction on the current opening hours of 8am-8pm from Monday to Friday and 9am-5pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

It is expected a charge will be levied on commercial and business premises – accounting for an estimated 20 per cent of waste – for recycling glass and cans.

Infrastructure director Maggie Sandison said changes in legislation left the SIC with no option but to change tack. The situation remains in flux, with further legislative changes expected, and she suspects that in the long term the council will be “recycling more and incinerating less”.

Collecting glass and cans “at least” once a month from every islands household will raise the local authority’s overall recycling rate to around 12 per cent, compared to six per cent at present.

SIC infrastructure director Maggie Sandison.  SIC infrastructure director Maggie Sandison.  Shetland will continue to recycle the lowest percentage of material anywhere in Scotland, trailing far behind the SNP Government’s target of recycling 70 per cent of waste by 2025.

But Sandison’s report pointed out that Zero Waste Scotland recognised that –until an alternative heat source to the energy recovery plant is found – “environmental benefits of waste incineration to heat the district heating scheme outweigh the environmental benefits of recycling combustible materials in Shetland”.

A special derogation from environmental regulator SEPA will be required to allow the energy recovery plant to continue burning hard plastics.

She told members of the environment and transport committee on Monday that the plan was to begin the new recycling collection next summer.

Door-to-door collections will help sort municipal waste, but more staff resources will be required to ensure industrial waste is properly sifted through prior to incineration.

“It will require different staffing,” she told environment and transport committee members. “We’re looking to change the opening hours of the waste management facility in order to redeploy staff to sorting waste rather than just accepting it through the gates.”

Sandison said staff would spend the remainder of 2014 looking at the best way to collect recycling, with an eye to Orkney where a similar door-to-door service was recently rolled out.

While “bring sites” for recycling will no longer be used by the council, Sandison said talks were being held about putting in place more textile banks for the Salvation Army “and they can choose what ones they want to use”.

The committee backed the report’s recommendations without objection on Monday, a move welcomed by chairman Michael Stout.

“There are many, many threads to this,” he said, “and I think from my perspective this gives us the best way out of the particular set of circumstances that we find ourselves in.”

Councillor Steven Coutts said he felt there was an opportunity for the council to be “proactive” in encouraging folk to minimise the amount of waste they generate, meaning there would be less material to recycle or burn in the first place.

Sandison agreed, saying the council should also promote reuse, while government regulations should reduce the extent to which things like fruit and vegetables are “wrapped in vast amounts of plastic”.

“We’ll see less and less [waste] when charges incurred in the manufacture of waste start to make that unattractive,” she said. “There are going to be big changes in waste generation as well as recycling as legislation proceeds.”

medical waste incinerator: medical waste and general waste
Capacity to burn waste: 400 — 500 kg/hr
Fuel: Diesel
Fuel Consumption: 10 litres/hr maximum
Incineration temperature: 950 – 1300 °c
Casing: thick (min 5 mm) Stainless steel casing and fully
insulated to withstand sea humidity
Voltage: 220/240 V or 380/415V
Frequency: 50 Hz
Feeding: automatic
Ash 1 leftovers removal: Automatic
Fuel gas filtration system: Yes
Warranty: 12 months
Staff training: Operator & Maintenance staff
Operation and service manuals: 3 sets each
Especifica??es Gerais     6 mm plate steel sheel construction
11cm 1400°C refractory Liner
temperature controlled Burners
secondary combustion burners
interlock switch on load doors
separete ash door
one secondary residence @ 1000°C
400°C silicone Based finish paint
alloy temperature sensor
factory wired and tested
Capacity    20kg/hr
primary Chamber    1607 L
Hearth area    1.36 aq.m
Secondary Chamber    694L
Primary burner (oil)    420.00btu
Secondary burner (oil)    900,000btu
Secondary combustion    1/6 hp
Exhaust stack    46cm x 6m
Electrical service     220/50
System weight    5,700kg
Dimension “D”    152cm
Doad port height e    60x60cm
Ash port height e    36x36cm
General Specifications    6mm plate steel sheel construction
11cm 1400 ° C refractory liner
temperature controlled Burners
secondary combustion burners
interlock switch on load doors
separete ash door
one secondary residence @ 1000 ° C
400 ° C silicone based paint finish
alloy temperature sensor
factory wired and tested
Capacity    20kg/hr
primary Chamber    1607 L
Hearth area    1:36 aq.m
Secondary Chamber    694L
Primary burner (oil)    420.00btu
Secondary burner (oil)    900,000 btu
Secondary combustion    1/6 hp
Exhaust stack    46cm x 6m
Electrical service    220/50
System weight    5.700 kg
Dimension “D”    152cm
Doad port height and    60x60cm
Ash port height and    36x36cm
medical, hospital, veterinary and industrial wastes by medical waste incinerator Process.
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