Stoneyhill

SITA UK and Aberdeenshire Council are working together to manage non-recyclable household waste in Aberdeenshire over the next 15 years.

At present, the people of Aberdeenshire recycle about 50,000 tonnes of household waste a year. However, this still leaves 100,000 tonnes that is sent to landfill for disposal.

This is unsustainable and increasingly expensive as every tonne of unrecycled municipal waste sent to landfill costs the council, and subsequently Aberdeenshire council taxpayers. This figure will increase by £8 per tonne per year, from £56 per tonne in 2011 to £80 per tonne in 2014. If this continues, it will result in Aberdeenshire Council and its residents having to find more and more money to landfill household waste.

Furthermore, all Scottish councils have strict new targets to increase the amount of waste they recycle and reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill, and could be fined if these targets are missed.

Aberdeenshire needs to develop a new way to manage waste so it can:

• Increase its recycling rate from 33 per cent to 60 per cent by 2020.
• Reduce the total amount of waste sent to landfill from 67 per cent to five per cent by 2025.

Stoneyhill Resource Recovery Park

In order to meet these new targets, and to comply with Scotland’s Zero Waste Policy, SITA UK is seeking planning permission to develop the Stoneyhill Resource Recovery Park.

The company has submitted a Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) to Aberdeenshire Council outlining its plans to develop this facility on land adjacent to the Stoneyhill landfill site, which is 1.5 km west of Longhaven and 7 km south west of Peterhead.

To ensure that the local community and wider Aberdeenshire residents are fully informed about the proposals and have an opportunity to get involved in the plans, we have undertaken a comprehensive pre-application engagement programme, where we sought input and feedback from interested parties.

SITA UK held two exhibitions during the third week of March 2011, where outline plans were on display along with a selection of draft concept designs of the facility and residents could ask questions and give their views.

We also held a second set of exhibitions on 14 and 15 June 2011 to enable members of the community to see our refined proposal for the resource recovery park. These latest exhibitions also provided information on a separate planning application we submitted to Aberdeenshire Council to amend the closure date of the existing Stoneyhill landfill site from June 2012 to December 2024. The council’s Buchan Area Committee approved this application in May 2012.

Under this new permission, the total amount of waste deposited at the site will not increase. The total amount of waste deposited at the site will stay unchanged, but the site can continue to accept waste over a longer period of time to account for the decrease in the amount of waste being landfilled, therefore ensuring that the void is ultimately filled and the land restored to agreed contours.

A non-technical summary of this proposal along with the information on display at the recent exhibitions is available to download below.

• Stoneyhill leaflet (June 2011)
• Stoneyhill RRP exhibition panels (June 2011)
• Stoneyhill landfill exhibition panels (June 2011)
• Stoneyhill landfill non-technical summary (November 2011)
• Stoneyhill press releases

Contact us

If you have questions or would like to know more about the resource recovery park, please email us at stoneyhill@sita.co.uk