FAMED as the birthplace of one of the world’s original environmentalists, it is the starting point for a cross Scotland trail that celebrates his legacy and the beauty of nature. 

Now John Muir’s birthplace of Dunbar in East Lothian, is set to become the frontline of Scotland’s battle with the modern scourge of the environment - plastic and rubbish. 

Waste specialist Viridor has unveiled plans to create a new innovation centre and one of the UK’s largest plastic reprocessing sites on the edge of the town. 

The move is being seen as a major leap towards tackling a national river of plastic waste which flows every year out of Scotland to other countries due to a lack of homegrown facilities. 

The provision of plastic recycling plants has become crucial after countries which once accepted UK waste for reprocessing have begun withdrawing from the market, raising the prospect of mountains of hard to recycle waste accumulating at the precise time efforts are being made to drive up recycling rates.

If given planning approval, the advanced polymer reprocessing site would be the first of its kind in Scotland and will be fuelled by a neighbouring existing low carbon ‘energy from waste’ plant. 

During reprocessing, plastic will be reduced to tiny pellets which can then be reused to make items such as plastic bottles. 

The site is expected to put up to 85,000 tonnes of recycled plastic back into the circular economy annually.

As well as the plastic reprocessing plant, the Dunbar-based Scottish Circular Economy and Innovation Park will house an innovation centre where universities, scientists, established businesses and start-up companies can work together to develop solutions to help eliminate waste. 

It is expected to focus on tackling the hardest to recycle products, such as cling film, which tends to end up in landfill where it takes hundreds of years to degrade.

Viridor’s Innovation and Regulation Director Tim Rotheray, said: “We are also looking closely at chemical recycling, where we take plastic back to its base material. By returning it to oil, it could be put back into the plastic manufacturing process.

“If we can get that to work at scale it has potential for infinite plastic recycling.

“There are all kinds of novel ideas, start-ups and great thinking from Scottish universities that we need to harness.

“Success lies in partnering across business, government, academia and inventors to ensure Scottish resources are used and reprocessed in Scotland before being returned to local businesses creating a truly circular economy. These partnerships move us from ambition to the practical reality which delivers real results for the country.”

Viridor, which employs 490 people in Scotland, already runs a glass recycling plant at Newhouse, a recycling facility at Bargeddie, and operates the Glasgow Recycling and Renewable Energy Centre for Glasgow City Council.

Its energy from waste (EfW) plant at Dunbar opened last year alongside an existing waste treatment hub, and is designed to divert about 300,000 tonnes of non-recyclable ‘residual waste’ from landfill. It generates 258GWh of base-load renewable energy direct to the National Grid – the equivalent of 39 wind turbines – enough to continuously power 70,656 homes, and offers up to 10MW of heat available for local use.

The blueprint for the Dunbar operation is similar to Viridor’s £65 million site in Avonmouth, near Bristol. Currently the biggest plastic recycling plant in the UK, it has been designed to be able to recycle 60,000 tonnes of waste, which accounts for 8% of all plastic thrown away in the UK.

Viridor’s vision for its Dunbar site was launched at an online event, during which Scotland’s Minister for Trade, Investment and Innovation, Ivan McKee, called for partnerships to be forged in order to tackle the country’s waste problems and create ‘green’ jobs.

He said: “Scotland’s climate and environmental priorities are intrinsically linked with economic growth and jobs. They are and must be part of a singular mission.

“As we plan our strategic economic recovery from Covid-19, now is the time to re-imagine the Scotland around us and to begin building a greener, fairer and more equal society and economy focused on wellbeing. This includes identifying the infrastructure investments this transition will require.

“This is not something the Scottish public sector can deliver on its own.”

Scotland’s most recent waste figures show more than 1.5 million tonnes of rubbish left the country in 2016, up from 1.3 million in the previous year.

This includes 806,000 tonnes of waste which was sent to the rest of the UK, 680,956 tonnes which was exported to Europe and 70,653 which was sent further afield.

The export figures, published by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), make up 14.4 per cent of the total waste produced in Scotland for 2016. 

Until January 2018, China imported most of the world's plastic waste. However, concerns over contamination and pollution led to it refusing to buy recycled plastic scrap that is not 99.5% pure.

Waste exports were diverted to other markets such as Malaysia and Thailand, however both have also introduced bans. 

With waste export markets closing, pressure has mounted on the UK to create recycling solutions or face being left with mountains of hard to recycle waste, at the precise time when it is attempting to drive up its recycling rates.

Viridor Managing Director Phil Piddington said “Success lies in partnering across business, government, academia and inventors to ensure Scottish resources are used and reprocessed in Scotland before being returned to local businesses creating a truly circular economy. 

“These partnerships move us from ambition to the practical reality which delivers real results for the country.”