Your Questions Answered

Q. Who is Lifetime Recycling?

A. Unlike many developers, Lifetime Recycling is not a major PLC or waste giant. Far from it, the core Lifetime Recycling Village team is made up of experienced local business and professional people who live in and around East Renfrewshire and who want to take action to tackle the huge problem of waste that we are facing in west central Scotland.

Q. What is the Lifetime Recycling Village?

A. The Lifetime Recycling Villlage will take in mixed waste, that would otherwise go to landfill, and through a combination of sustainable processes in a closed loop system achieve maximum recycling, create renewable energy and recover valuable materials, with nothing leaving the site that does not have added value for the community or wider economy. The Recycling Village could create enough renewable energy to power 100,000 homes.

Q. Where is it?

A. The proposed location for the Lifetime Recycling Village is away from built up areas and well connected to major road networks. We conducted a thorough search of the west of Scotland, the area we intend to serve, before deciding on this site and we will develop our proposals to sit sympathetically in the local landscape.

Q. Is this simply an incinerator?

A. No. The Lifetime Recycling Village is a recycling centre and biomass renewable energy plant, firstly separating useable materials, then creating clean energy, re-useable heat and output products like glass, metals and building blocks, with no pollution.

Q. Is it a health risk?

A. Absolutely not, there is no risk to anyone's health with this project and we will invest in the latest equipment and abide by the most stringent regulations. This process is cleaner than incineration, which in itself has already been cleared of the need for public health inspections around modern plants operating to European standards as the risk to health is "so small that it would be indetectable."

Q. How does it work?

A. STAGE ONE
Mixed waste would enter into the Recycling Village and all recyclable materials would be extracted with sophisticated optical (and other forms of) recycling technology. Maximum recycling is always our objective

STAGE TWO
With recyclables removed this leaves a biomass fraction, which would be prepared into a green fuel and gasified to produce renewable energy, which will go to the National Grid to power homes and businesses

STAGE THREE
The remaining residue from the gasification process would then be subjected to plasma vitrification technology, which essentially breaks it down into its constituent parts, producing glass, metals, minerals and compounds, which can all be remanufactured.

And that's it. We find value in everything that comes into the Recycling Village and nothing bad goes out of it.

As you can see this really is a complete recycling and remanufacturing process and this would be the first, sustainable, zero-waste, low carbon Recycling Village of its kind in Scotland.

Q. Will this mean lots of extra traffic and lorries?

A. We aren't creating any extra waste, so all of these lorries will already be on the road network somewhere. However we are minded that the Lifetime Recycling Village will mean that they are more concentrated. So, to address this, we will ensure that truck movements are phased throughout the day and night and reduced at peak times to minimise impact, using only an agreed routing pattern.

Q. What benefits will this have for the local area?

A. The Recycling Village will bring significant employment and investment into the area, creating in the region of 1000 permanent jobs, not including those in construction.

Once built The Recycling Village will also be a genuine community resource in itself, with an Education Centre for local children, a Visitor Centre for the general public and a civic amenity waste facility, where families can come and recycle their goods.

We will also be donating to a local community trust, to champion excellence in East Renfrewshire and support local causes.