Despite local opposition, the incinerator was approved by Perth and Kinross Council last December (ENDS Report 379, p 18 ).
The application had also been opposed by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency which argued it did not maximise the potential for energy recovery in accordance with national planning policy.
Under the draft Directive on waste, the European Commission has proposed that all existing incinerators with energy efficiency greater than 60% be deemed recovery operations (ENDS Report 381, p 16 ). According to Sita, the proposed incinerator would deliver an efficiency of 61.4%. However, SEPA still objected.
The plant will burn 60,000 tonnes of residual waste a year, generating up to 4.65MW of electricity.