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Viridor Material Recovery Facility, Bargeddie

The Viridor MRF in Bargeddie accepts residual waste from five local authorities. The waste is processed and separated on site in order to recover or recycle as much material as possible. After processing, this waste then leaves the site either for further recovery or for final disposal.  

The site is authorised, regulated and inspected by SEPA and operates within the terms of a licence granted under the Waste Management Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2011. Attached to this licence are a set of conditions relating to on-site activity.  

SEPA, as the environmental regulator, has a duty to ensure that these conditions are being complied with. 

Latest update

Site update

Date published: 19 April 2024

Since 2023, there has been a significant reduction in the number of complaints received by SEPA associated with odour and flies from the communities surrounding Viridor in Bargeddie. Despite this, SEPA continue to monitor the site proactivity to ensure that Viridor continue to comply with licence conditions.

An inspection of Viridor on 9 April 2024 found no breaches in licence conditions, although subsequent odour monitoring carried out on 11 April 2024 did substantiate an odour that was deemed offensive by SEPA officers. In response to this, Viridor took swift and robust action to rectify an issue with the odour abatement unit which was resolved by 13 April 2024.

SEPA will continue to investigate issues of odour and flies associated with the site both in responding to complaints made by the public, and as part of our routine monitoring going forward. The frequency of this routing monitoring will increase over the warmer months, and this will continue for the duration of the summer.

Flies

Viridor have taken numerous management and procedural actions in order to achieve compliance with their licence condition relating to flies, these include:

• Implementing a Pest Management Plan which comprehensively outlines the fly monitoring and mitigation process on site.
• A change in the storage location of recycling waste fractions with all waste now stored within the main operations hall.
• Increasing the use of targeted, reactive application of insecticide during the working day.

Odour

in 2023 Viridor carried out a comprehensive review of the odour abatement system installed on site to identify potential improvements. This review raised a recommendation to implement an infrastructure change to the internal routing of the system to enable isolation of individual vessels. This infrastructure upgrade is planned to be installed by summer 2024. 

The above measures reflect the continued engagement that Viridor are making with SEPA to ensure compliance with licence conditions.

SEPA will continue to liaise with Viridor and the public through regular stakeholder meetings.

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