Centralisation of waste management operations

A range of waste management operations could be centralised at Moray Council’s existing site at Moycroft in Elgin.

It follows a review of waste management depots coupled with a need to increase capacity to handle residual waste which would have to be transferred to the proposed new energy-from-waste plant in Aberdeen.

Councillors will be asked next week to approve in principle the consolidation of operations at an expanded Moycroft site.

It would accommodate operations currently carried out at the Brumley Brae depot in Elgin which houses the council’s fleet of refuse vehicles and the Waste Watchers materials recovery facility at Lossiemouth’s Coulardbank industrial estate.

Waste management staff currently based at Ashgrove in Elgin would also relocate.

The council’s economic development and infrastructure services committee will be told that the estimated cost of consolidating operationsat Moycroft will be £3.3million, including £1.7million for a new waste transfer station which will be needed to cope with the additional throughput.

It is estimated that an additional 8000 tonnes of refuse every year will have to be transferred from Moray to the energy-from-waste facility in Aberdeen when the existing landfill site at Nether Dallachy closes in a few years’ time.

A report to councillors states: “By co-locating all the waste management operations in one facility it is estimated that this will yield an annual £40,000 efficiency saving which includes logistical benefits and reduction in ongoing maintenance of the Brumley Brae and Lossiemouth sites.”

The committee meeting starts at 9.30 on Tuesday morning, and can be viewed on our webcast here