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.” 

John Young, from the local Dovesdale Action Group who have campaigned against the incinerator from the start said:

“Dovesdale Action Group welcome this news in tackling the impact incineration has on climate change and protecting public health and the environment. The Scottish Government made a commitment through a national review of incineration to stop all new applications for incinerators. Several years later the Scottish Government have been slow to set a cap on incineration and progress all 13 recommendations of the review.

“Meanwhile Scotland continues to burn recyclable resources to the detriment of national targets to improve waste recycling and reduce emissions. If we want to be world leaders in recycling and reducing emissions then incineration should have no future in creating a sustainable climate policy that rewards recycling and ends emissions from burning resources. If the Scottish Government believe we are in a ‘Climate Emergency’ then action must be taken now to prevent new incinerators in our communities.”