Plans for a new recycling plant have been agreed between Glasgow City Council and UK renewable energy and waste company Viridor.

The new incinerator plant, set for the site of a former incinerator in Polmadie, Glasgow, would recycle around 200,000 tonnes of waste a year and produce heat and power for social housing, The Scotsman has reported.

Glasgow City Council appointed Viridor to build the plant, which the company said will create 250 jobs over the 25 years of the public-private partnership agreement.

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Council leader Gordon Matheson said: "Sustainability has to deliver for Glaswegians. It has to make life better for our most vulnerable citizens and communities and it has to provide good-quality jobs."

The plant would cost £150m to build but save £254m on the council's waste disposal bill, the local authority said.

Viridor would finance, construction and running of the site and the council would pay an annual fee for waste disposal.

The proposals are still subject to planning permission.

Colin Paterson, Scottish regional director of Viridor, said: "This places Glasgow at the forefront of European cities by transforming how it sustainably manages its green bin residual waste."

But Patrick Harvie, Green MSP for Glasgow, said: "A number of local residents have concerns about this project and I recently met with them. It does strike me as somewhat incompatible with Scotland's zero-waste ambitions that our biggest city could become home to a plant that relies on a constant stream of waste materials."

(NE)