News Roundup 📰
KKR Set to Sell Viridor for £7bn
Private equity firm KKR is preparing to sell UK-based recycling and waste management giant Viridor, just five years after acquiring it for £4.2bn. With a potential sale price of around £7bn, the deal reflects the ongoing high value of waste infrastructure — despite market struggles, including Viridor’s closure of its Kent plastics plant due to financial losses. Alasdair notes that almost every UK energy-from-waste facility is currently up for sale, highlighting how volatile (and profitable) the waste recovery market can be.
Global Plastics Treaty Talks Collapse
Two weeks of international negotiations have ended with no agreement on a global plastics treaty. Discussions aimed at reducing plastic production and tackling plastic pollution fell apart under pressure from powerful lobbying groups. Jane and Alasdair express frustration at yet another missed opportunity to curb a growing environmental crisis.
Indaver Exits Ness Energy-from-Waste Plant
In the North East of Scotland, Indaver has officially exited the troubled Ness Energy-from-Waste plant, leaving the original owner ACW in full control. While the plant is now operational again, the recent turmoil forced local authorities to scramble for landfill contingencies — a costly reminder of how fragile waste infrastructure can be.
UK’s First Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Facility Launches
On a brighter note, LIBAT has opened the UK’s first lithium-ion battery recycling plant, using nitrogen to safely shred batteries and recover valuable materials like cobalt, nickel, manganese, and lithium. While “black mass” still needs to be exported for final reprocessing, this is a critical step in tackling one of the fastest-growing waste streams.
Major Fire at Dunfermline Landfill Site
A significant blaze broke out at Cireco’s Lochhead landfill site, destroying equipment but fortunately causing no injuries. The incident is the latest in a series of fires linked to improper battery and vape disposal. Alasdair warns that with 3–4 waste vehicle fires a day across the UK, stronger measures — not just campaigns — are urgently needed to stop dangerous materials entering residual waste.
Topic: Recover the Energy of Waste Produced ⚡
This week, Alasdair and Jane continue their journey through the waste hierarchy, arriving at recovery — the stage where we extract energy from what’s left after we’ve reduced, reused, and recycled.
Recovery takes two main forms: anaerobic digestion (AD) and energy from waste (EfW). AD is a win-win: it processes food waste (and other organic waste streams like farm residues and distillery by-products) in oxygen-free conditions to create methane for energy and digestate for farmland. The challenge? Only around 20% of Scots use their food waste bins. If everyone participated, Scotland’s current capacity gap for EfW facilities could disappear overnight.
EfW — often called incineration — handles what’s left in the residual bin. Modern plants operate under strict emissions standards and, in the best cases, supply electricity, heat, and recover metals from ash. Examples like Shetland’s district heating scheme show how effective EfW can be when integrated properly.
But challenges remain. EfW plants are expensive, inflexible “hungry beasts” that require consistent feedstock to pay off long-term contracts. Critics argue they destroy resources that could one day be recovered through better technology. With Scotland’s biodegradable landfill ban coming into force in January 2026 — and an estimated 300,000–700,000 tonnes of waste without a contracted home — EfW will play a critical role, but it’s no silver bullet.
Add in the looming UK Emissions Trading Scheme (from 2028), which could add £80–£90 per tonne to EfW costs, and the need to prioritise reduction, reuse, and recycling becomes clearer than ever.
Key takeaway? Use your food waste caddy, recycle properly, and cut what you throw away. The less we put in the residual bin, the less we need to burn.
Rubbish Rant: Coffee Cups & Empty Promises ☕
This week’s rant takes aim at the National Cup Recycling Scheme. Backed by big brands like Costa, McDonald’s, Pret, and Greggs, they’ve launched a £45,000 fund to support coffee cup recycling.
Sounds positive — until you realise the UK bins 3.2 billion cups a year, costing over £5 million just to dispose of and that’s before you add collection, litter-picking, and street-cleaning costs. Against those figures, a £45,000 contribution from some of the UK’s most profitable brands looks like little more than corporate tokenism.
For Alasdair, this token contribution from hugely profitable companies is more PR than progress. Worse still, no one seems clear on what those “recycled” cups actually become.
The simple solution? Ditch disposables. Bring your own cup. One reusable could stop you adding to the 49 cups per person the UK throws away annually.
Takeaway: Real change isn’t about small cheques — it’s about cutting waste at the source.
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