ALMOST 1000 new waste treatment plants could be built to turn Scotland's mountains of refuse into heat and power for homes and businesses, according to a report for Scotland's green watchdog.

But the report - to be published this week by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) - will provoke anxiety in communities across the country, worried about pollution from facilities in their areas.

Sepa, however, insists the proposed new facilities will be clean and strictly regulated. They include up to 741 gas-producing composting plants and 228 small-scale incinerators, all of which could supply hot water and electricity.

The plants will also create more than 7000 jobs, prevent 10 million tonnes of waste from being dumped as landfill, and cut Scotland's climate pollution by more than 5%, the new report says. The report doesn't say where the sites will be located.

Sepa commissioned Ayrshire consultants, AEA Energy and Environment, to investigate the energy potential of Scotland's waste. Its report, which has been seen by the Sunday Herald, maps out a radical shift in how Scotland might deal with its rubbish. "Scotland is on the threshold of developing the next generation of waste management infrastructure to move away from our over-dependence on landfill," said John Ferguson, Sepa's strategic projects manager.

"We must continue to reduce waste and increase recycling. But where energy can be recovered from waste we have an opportunity to do this in an intelligent way that recognises the climate change, economic efficiency and energy security benefits."

The AEA report estimates that 9.6 million tonnes of the 13.7 million tonnes of waste produced every year in Scotland could be used to produce energy. This includes waste from farms, forests, sewage works, industry, commerce and households.

It envisages treating some of the waste in anaerobic digestion plants, which use microbes in the absence of oxygen to cause decomposition and generate gas. The gas can then be burnt to produce either heat or electricity.

Other waste is more suitable for burning in incinerators, or thermal treatment plants. The resulting heat can be used to generate electricity and be piped as hot water to nearby buildings.

By using combined heat and power plants, the report estimates the waste could deliver 11 million megawatt hours of energy a year, about 13% of the energy currently provided by natural gas.

The new plants would also reduce levels of methane gas leaking from landfill sites. The report calculates this would help cut Scotland's total greenhouse gas emissions by 5.6%.

The plans, however, have been given a cautious reception by environmental groups. Though they welcome the prospect of anaerobic digestion plants, they are concerned that too many incinerators could undermine attempts to reduce and recycle waste.

"Anaerobic digestion can play a central role in tackling biowaste and it is encouraging that this study reveals just how big this potential is in Scotland," said Dr Dan Barlow, head of policy at WWF Scotland.

The Scottish government has limited the amount of municipal waste that should be incinerated to 25% by 2025. "We would urge them to adopt a similar approach in dealing with Scotland's commercial waste," argued Barlow.

"Any headlong rush to mass incineration of commercial waste would be entirely at odds with Scotland's zero waste ambition and hinder our chance of achieving high rates of recycling in this sector."