Plans to ditch Scottish incinerator ‘a win for the environment’

Environmental campaigners are celebrating the decision to cancel plans to expand the Levenseat waste incinerator in Scotland. 

The plans, which would have doubled the capacity of the existing plant, burning an extra 315,000 tonnes of waste per year, were originally approved by West Lothian Council in 2019. Last week (12 March) the company in charge, Levenseat Resource Management, confirmed it will no longer develop phase two of the project.  

Waste incineration emits harmful pollution, contributes to climate breakdown, and prevents effective reuse and recycling. Since 2011, incineration rates have increased by over 350% in Scotland and, in 2024, nearly two million tonnes of waste were burned. 

Scotland introduced a ban on new incinerators in 2022, but loopholes meant that ten incinerators which already had planning permission, including the second phase of Levenseat, could still be built. Since the ban, four of the ten incinerators have been built, many of which are situated in some of the most deprived communities in Scotland including Torry in Aberdeen and Irvine in North Ayrshire. In 2025, Scotland’s environmental watchdog put the Scottish Government on notice regarding its failure to reduce incineration overcapacity. 

Kim Pratt, Circular Economy Campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland said:  

“The cancellation of plans to expand the Levenseat incinerator is a win for the environment. Instead of being locked into decades of burning waste, solutions which benefit local people, like reuse and recycling, can be allowed to flourish. 

“This decision demonstrates that Scotland already has too many incinerators. We already know from Scottish Government data that over half of the household waste thrown away in black bag bins could have been recycled. The Scottish Government should close the loopholes on the remaining five incinerators planned to be built in Scotland in the next two years.”