EASTER Langlee in Galashiels will cease to be a landfill site and will be decommissioned between 2017 and 2021.

Instead, it will become a waste transfer station (WTS) receiving 40,000 tonnes of black binbag rubbish from households and businesses across the Borders which will then be hauled by lorry to treatment facilities outwith the region.

That is the recommendation of a report by Scottish Borders Council’s waste manager Ross Sharp-Dent which will be presented at Thursday’s full council meeting.

Councillors will hear that at the current rate of usage, the landfill capacity of Easter Langlee will be exhausted by the summer or winter of 2017.

“An urgent decision needs to be taken,” states a report by Scottish Borders Council’s waste manager Ross Sharp-Dent.

The WTS will be set up on the part of the site which was earmarked for an advance treatment facility (ATT), the contract for which, with a firm called New Earth Solutions (NES), was scrapped in February of this year.

That plant would have diverted 80% of the region’s waste away from landfill and set the council on course to meet a Scottish Government ban on all biodegradable waste going to landfill by January 1, 2021.

As it stands, however, 63% of household waste collected in the Borders is currently going to landfill – up 5% on last year – with the balance being recycled.

“In order to comply…the council will either have to treat its biodegradable municipal waste in the Borders prior to landfill or transfer it out of the Borders for treatment,” states Mr Ross-Dent.

And after a “landfill options appraisal”, which included creating more landfill capacity at Easter Langlee, he is recommending the latter option.

His report estimates that creating the WTS will involve a capital spend of £5.54m – the bulk of which - £4.77m – will be borrowed in 2017/18.

Annual revenue costs to the council, including loan repayments, will be around £5.5m – slightly less than SBC currently pays for waste treatment.

The report says that this financial analysis is supported by SLR Consulting Ltd and Nevin Associates.

During the procurement process leading up to the ill-fated deal with NES, which saw nearly £2m of public money written off, the council paid these companies £184,355 and £143,401 respectively.

The future destination of Borders waste will be determined by another procurement exercise with operators from outwith the region invited to tender for the treatment contract.

Mr Ross-Dent states: “There are now a number of treatment facilities with capacity either operational or in the process of being developed outwith the region within reach of the Borders. Gate fees for merchant treatment capacity are becoming increasingly competitive.” The transportation of 40,000 tonnes of waste from the Borders in standard 26-tonne lorries, would involve 1,163 journeys.