Iain Gulland, Director, Zero Waste Scotland; with Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead
Environment Secretary confirms funding for new research centre for the country’s remanufacturing sector.
At the Scottish Resources Conference held in Glasgow, Scotland’s Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead announced plans for the £1.3 million ($2 million/€1.65 million) Scottish Institute of Remanufacture, with a statement confirming the announcement published on the Scottish government’s website.
Noting that the plans could see the country’s remanufacturing sector “entering a golden era”, Lochhead also announced the creation of a Scottish Materials Brokerage Service, described as “a one-stop shop to grow Scotland’s reprocessing sector, and help the public sector to get a better deal for the recycled materials collected from their communities”.
Lochhead highlighted that the Scottish economy could benefit from high value products and materials, such as gold and electronic components, which could be taken from disused TVs, mobile phones and computers; and so the new pan-Scottish hub “will focus on realising the vast value in the materials and components within the products we recycle”.
Commenting on the plans, Lochhead said: “The Scottish government is serious about creating a greener, more circular economy, where our valuable products and materials remain in useful circulation for longer, creating and sustaining jobs in the process.
“The challenge is to redesign products to make it easier to take them apart and remanufacture them into new products, and harness their true value. We need Scotland’s brightest and best minds to be focused on achieving this more circular use of valuable products and materials and that is what the new Scottish Institute of Remanufacture will do.”
He concluded: “Scotland can become an international leader on innovative waste solutions by creating a greener, more circular economy. I look forward to seeing further progress down this path with these two innovative schemes.”
The Scottish Institute of Remanufacture is to be hosted by the University of Strathclyde, with Vice-Principal Professor Scott MacGregor commenting: “The University of Strathclyde is committed to working with partners in industry and academia to advance technology to benefit the economy in Scotland and beyond. As home to the UK’s largest remanufacturing research group, the university is well-positioned to ensure Scotland is at the forefront of supporting remanufacturing and we are delighted to be hosting the new institute.”
Meanwhile, Iain Gulland, Director of Zero Waste Scotland, which is funded by the Scottish government to support the delivery of its Zero Waste Plan, said: “The launch of the remanufacturing centre is excellent news for Scotland. The institute can become a centre of excellence and expertise for a sector which has exciting potential to develop a sustainable manufacturing industry in Scotland.
“Our current make-and-dispose economic model cannot continue and by focusing on remanufacture and reuse, Scotland can develop a circular economy which makes better use of resources and creates jobs. Zero Waste Scotland will work with partners in all sectors to support this development.
“Zero Waste Scotland is also excited about the transformative impact the materials brokerage service could have in driving high quality recycling and reprocessing in Scotland, and we are working with Scottish Procurement to make sure the service gets off to a strong start in January.”
Read more about this story in the next issue of The Recycler.