Herald Scotland reports that a Lanarkshire clinical waste management company has created 50 new jobs following a £10m investment in energy efficiency and recycling.
Healthcare Environmental Group, the largest independent waste management firm in the UK, recently relocated its headquarters in Shotts to the nearby newly-built 37-acre Hassockrigg eco-park in a move the company claims will drive £1m of energy efficiencies a year.
High-tech “pyrolysis” facilities at the new site will allow steam and heat generated from the sterilising of medical and hazardous waste to be converted into energy which will be fed into the National Grid and also used to heat and light the eco-park itself, in a move that will reduce the company’s running costs.
The new plant is capable of processing 35,000 tonnes of waste products a year and will make the site energy self-sufficient.
The innovative project has been five years in the planning with construction getting underway in 2013. The first stage of the project completed recently, allowing a small amount of electricity to be generated. When the system is fully commissioned by the summer over two megawatts of power an hour will be produced.
A third stage will see independent businesses moving on to the site by the end of next year, when they will be able to tap into energy generated by the eco-park.
Funding for the eco-park came from an eight-figure package from HSBC’s £400m fund to support Scottish small to medium-sized companies.
The family-owned business, which has a total workforce of over 400, holds all NHS waste disposal contracts in Scotland as well as Yorkshire and Humber.
The company collects and processes clinical waste from every hospital, GP surgery, dental cabinet and pharmacy in Scotland.
The new plant will for the first time allow all of Scotland’s medical waste to be processed in Scotland. Previously certain wastes had to be sent to southern England because of a lack of processing infrastructure north of the border.
The £17m turnover company operates from 13 sites throughout the UK including recently-acquired premises in Newcastle upon Tyne, following the award of a 15-year contract with the NHS North-East Consortium.
Managing Director Garry Pettigrew said that the investment would help to secure a further 50 local jobs indirectly, in addition to the 50 new jobs created by Healthcare Environmental which takes the total workforce to at Hassockrigg to 170.
“We take being energy efficient seriously and the new site will not only help us reduce our carbon footprint but turn what was wasted resource into energy,” he said.