The owners of a quarry in Midlothian want restrictions on the type of material used to fill in the site to be relaxed.
The NWH Group, who own the quarry at Middleton Limeworks, Gorebridge, has applied to be allowed to use non-hazardous waste left over from recycling at another site, to infill the site.
Current restrictions introduced by Midlothian Council restrict the site to inert materials only - generally described as materials which have not been treated or undergone procedures to change them and are unlikely to cause harm.
Non-hazardous materials can have small amounts of heavy metals or chemicals present but not enough to cause harm to health or the environment.
In an application to change the restriction to Midlothian planners NWH say the change would allow it to use excess leftover materials from its Mayfield recycling centre at the site.
It said: "The recycling process allows construction and demolition waste, which would normally be disposed of at an appropriate landfill, to be processed producing secondary aggregate.
"As part of this process a filter cake/clay material is produced, which in some instances can be used for engineering purposes.
"However, it is not always possible to find an end-use for the filter cake and, where this is not possible, the material requires disposal. This waste is considered to be non-hazardous waste and not inert waste.
"Under the current planning permission, only truly inert waste can be used for infilling purposes."
The company said the quarry is already lined to ensure no materials can impact the surrounding groundwater and regularly undergoes environmental monitoring to ensure it is operating safely.
And it argued taking the additional material left over from the recycling plant was a sustainable action which would be good for the environment.
It said: "As the quarry void already has an appropriate liner installed, the addition of non-hazardous waste codes to the Middleton site, is not anticipated to be of detriment to the water environment.
"Additionally, the context of the material being in-brought being to allow for on-going recycling and the increasing demand for recycled aggregated as the need for sustainability becomes more prominent, and thus can only be a benefit to the environment."
The application is available to view on Midlothian Council's planning portal.
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