Birdhill technology being used by Scottish Water
A plastic waste-reduction technology developed in Birdhill is being used by Scotland state utility Scottish Water.
Envetec Sustainable Technologies Limited (Envetec), a leading sustainability innovator in clean technology for healthcare and life sciences, last week announced that Scottish Water has adopted Envetec’s GENERATIONS technology to improve how high-volume laboratory plastics are handled after use.
While Scottish Water already recycled non-contaminated sample bottles, the new technology provides a more efficient route for processing them and, crucially, enables single-use plastics that may be contaminated with microbiological waste to be disinfected, shredded, and prepared for recycling for the first time.
Scottish Water completes around three million analytical tests each year across its laboratories in Edinburgh, Inverness, and other locations throughout Scotland to protect public health, maintain water quality, and safeguard the environment. To ensure compliance with stringent regulatory standards, Scottish Water must use large quantities of single-use plastics in its laboratories, including sample bottles, petri dishes, and pipette tips, to support safe, sterile, and accurate testing, making its Scientific Services team the largest producer of plastic waste across the company.
Elise Cartmel, General Manager for Net Zero at Scottish Water, said the Birdhill-developed technology allows the utility to handle waste streams in a more environmentally friendly way, reducing what goes to landfill or incineration. “We’re really pleased to be working with Envetec to lead the way with this innovative technology,” she said.
STREAMLINED PROCESS
Based at the Shannonside Business Park, Envetec’s new technology has seen Scottish Water process approximately 72,000 sample bottles since January, reducing the time staff spend manually handling bottles and creating a more streamlined, traceable process for one of its highest-volume laboratory plastic streams. The team is now extending the technology to microbiological plastic waste that has traditionally required autoclaving - a sterilisation process used in labs and healthcare settings to make equipment or samples completely free of microorganisms - before being sent to landfill or incineration because it could not previously be recycled.
“Scottish Water is demonstrating how essential laboratory plastics can be managed differently after use,” said Malcolm Bell, CEO of Envetec. “These materials are often necessary for safety, accuracy, and compliance, yet their end-of-life can be transformed. GENERATIONS is helping laboratories treat selected waste streams on site, capture useful operational data, and support meaningful material recovery.”
Alongside the treatment of laboratory plastic waste, the technology captures data on waste volumes, material types, laboratory sources, downstream pathways, polymer types, and indicative emissions savings.
Scottish Water is using this information to strengthen reporting and traceability, and to evaluate opportunities to expand the approach to additional laboratory waste streams.