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Material Recovery Facility, Bargeddie

The Viridor MRF in Bargeddie accepts residual waste from five local authorities. The waste is processed and separated on site 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.  

Latest update

Site update

Date published: 11 June 2024

On the weekend of the 18 and 19 May 2024, SEPA received several reports from members of the public in Bargeddie relating to issues of abnormal fly numbers experienced within their homes.

SEPA officers inspected the Viridor site on Monday 21 May to investigate these reports. During the inspection of the site, officers viewed Viridor's fly monitoring and insecticide application logs and noted that in relation to recent weather conditions and an increase in fly numbers the site had increased insecticide applications.

Viridor advised that the site was undertaking a scheduled shut-down and not currently processing waste. During this time contractors were present on site carrying out maintenance on machinery. The site is the transfer station for waste from North Lanarkshire Council, therefore waste had been received, bulked up and sent out from the site throughout the scheduled shut-down.

During a walk around of the site, officers observed elevated numbers of flies within the waste process halls. Additionally, doors were observed to have been left open by contractors causing the escape of flies. 

Later, on Monday 21 May, Viridor advised SEPA that a scheduled insecticide application was to be carried out in the evening by their pest management contractor and that the importance of keeping doors closed has been reiterated to both staff and contractors. Viridor invited SEPA to attend the site later in the week as they believed that all issues had been resolved and that fly numbers on site were well controlled.

In response to these non-compliances SEPA has issued Viridor with a letter outlining actions to be taken.

Flies:

Viridor implement a Fly Management Plan which outlines the considerations and measures taken to reduce the presence of flies on the site. 

Odour:

All odorous air generated within the process buildings is routed through an activated carbon abatement unit installed at the site by Viridor. When operating as intended, this unit is highly effective at abating odorous air before release via the main stack attached to the process building. This odorous air is passed through dust and particulate filters before being passed through the activated carbon filtration media which absorbs odorous compounds.

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

Recently, Viridor have been trialling a change to the maintenance process of their odour abatement unit. SEPA are due to receive an updated Odour Management Plan reflecting these changes by the end of June 2024.

Public engagement:

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

SEPA will only make further contact with individual complainers in relation to complaints where necessary for evidence-gathering purposed and in most cases, complainers will not receive any further update from us in respect to a complaint. Relevant updates will be made available on the Bargeddie Materials Recycling Facility hub page.

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