Fife Council extension plans for Lochhead landfill site

Jun 05, 2023

A £1.1 million investment at the tip at Wellwood will make it easier to turn tatty peelings and grass cuttings into energy.

Plans to extend the anaerobic digestion plant at the Lochhead landfill site by more than 3,000 square metres were approved last year and Fife Council are now ready to proceed after meeting a number of pre-development conditions.

It turns the contents of the brown bins collected from kerbs throughout Fife into electricity and heat and although there won't be an increase in the 40,000 tonnes of waste it treats each year, the new reception hall will help remove contamination.

Waste from the Lochhead landfill site north of Dunfermline is already helping to provide heat to public buildings and homes in the city. (Image: Newsquest)

Cireco Scotland run the site on behalf of the council and chief executive officer Robin Baird said the £1.1m investment "will continue to improve the quality of the material sent for composting".

In approving the extension, a council report concluded "that odour and noise are unlikely to have a significant affect on residents".

Plans were unveiled in 2011 and the anaerobic digestion plant opened in 2013 at a cost of £15.5m to deal with the contents of the brown bins.

Methane gas captured from up to 40,000 tonnes of food scraps and grass cuttings is converted into renewable electricity, which is sold to the national grid.

A by-product of the process, heat, is used in the council's district heating system, with underground pipes supplying hot water to public and private buildings such as the Broomhead Flats, the Carnegie Leisure Centre, the Tesco Fire Station store, Fire Station Creative and the new apartments in the Linen Quarter.

Food scraps and garden waste are helping to provide heat for residents in the Linen Quarter in Dunfermline. (Image: ESPC)

The volume of waste will not increase but the new reception hall extension will enable the co-mingled green and food waste to be "pre-treated prior to the anaerobic digestion process”.

This will involve removing contamination – by hand and mechanical means – such as glass, metal and plastic from the brown bins and "increase the quality of the digestate produced".

Over the years there have been numerous complaints from residents in Dunfermline about the smell from the rubbish dump at Lochhead.

The council said the reception hall will be fully enclosed and fitted with "odour abatement equipment" which would meet the requirements of the pollution prevention and control permit issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa).

A canopy will also be built over the existing compost storage area, which would "improve the existing situation".

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