Flipbook - TBF Autumn 2025 - Flipbook - Page 16
A NEW
GANTRY FOR
UPHOLSTERED
SEATING
“There is far more to the recycling and
waste service than bin collections and
this is an excellent project to highlight
that. Even in this most unlikely of
places, work is ongoing to make things
more sustainable and better for our
environment
said Chair of the council’s Infrastructure
Services Committee Councillor Alan Turner.
Waste upholstered seating can contain
persistent organic pollutants (POPs) –
harmful chemicals that must be destroyed by
incineration. SEPA rules require these items to
be kept separate from other waste to prevent
contamination, and a new gantry at Banchory
recycling centre now supports a dedicated
skip.
POPs in waste upholstered seating often come
from the flame-retardant decabromodiphenyl
ether (decaBDE), once widely used to slow
or prevent burning. Once considered safe,
decaBDE is now classed as a POP with health
and environmental risks.
The UK stopped producing it in 1996, its use
has since declined, and it is now banned under
the UN Stockholm Convention. Yet some waste
seating still contains POPs above legal limits,
so strict compliance procedures remain in
place.
Sofas • Sofa Beds • Armchairs
• Kitchen and Dining Room Chairs •
Home Office Chairs • Futons • Bean
Bags • Stools and Footstools • Floor
& Sofa Cushions • Highchairs with
Upholstery • Electric Recliner Chairs
The Banchory Fly |Autumn 2025 Page 16
These items must not be disposed or recycled
through standard processes, so we’ve made
changes at our household recycling centres,
such as described above, to separate these
from other items. Beds and mattresses are not
affected.
The nearby landfill is capped and no longer in
use, now serving as a wildlife haven.
Banchory was one of the last landfills in
Aberdeenshire to close and still produces
leachate and gas. This is captured by an
active extraction system, where a ground
flare and micro-generator convert it into
green electricity for the national grid and to
help power the landfill site, the neighbouring
recycling centre, and the waste transfer
station.
Landfills can take 50 years or more to recover,
depending on the waste content and volume.
Banchory’s site, closed and under restoration
since 2011, will need monitoring for decades
before it fully recovers.
Vice-chair Councillor Isobel Davidson said:
“Decades of waste management
goes into a landfill site long after it
has closed. The waste doesn’t just
disappear, and we have to deal with it.
Doing so in a way that minimises our
impact on the environment is always
the goal.”
Landfill Gas-to-Energy System at Banchory
