Viridor to build new UK glass recycling plant
UK-based recycling services provider Viridor is set to invest £25m in a new glass recycling plant in Newhouse, Lanarkshire.
To be located adjacent to the M8 motorway, the new plant will have a recycling capacity of 200,000t of glass a year.
Once completed, the plant will recycle packaging glass collected in Scotland. In this way, it will help to reduce the dependancy on imported materials used to produce whiskey and other glass drinks bottles.
The 70,000ft² plant will be built on a 7ha area. It will recover up to 97% of input materials with the recycling of glass from 17 Scottish local authorities, achieving up to 99% product purity.
Through a partnership with insulation provider Superglass in Stirling, Viridor’s recycling plant will create 30 full-time jobs and also enhance the warm homes objectives of the government.
The plant will be equipped with 15 ‘scientific eye’ optical sorters, x-ray sorters, over half a kilometre of conveyer belts and 2.5km of electrical cabling across three floors of processing towers.
Equipment installation is set to begin this month, and production will start in the summer. Full operation is expected by the end of the year.
Viridor chief executive Ian McAulay said that the company aims to bring its zero-waste policy into practice as part of a £500m Scottish investment strategy into Scotch whiskey and associated sectors.
“Building on our £100m network of Scottish recycling-led infrastructure, this latest investment, bringing the UK’s most advanced glass recycling centre home to the central belt, places Scotland at the leading edge of global glass recycling,” McAulay added.
Image: From L to R: Viridor Scottish regional director Colin Paterson; North Lanarkshire Council Convener of Environment Cllr Helen McKenna; and Viridor chief executive Ian McAulay.
