What Glasgow Gains

Carbotura would build an Advanced Circular Manufacturing facility at the Port of Glasgow. It's a modular factory that takes in materials — food waste, garden waste, biosolids, and similar — and converts them into manufactured products: synthetic graphite, graphene compounds, recovered metals, and ultrapure water. The facility is classed as a manufacturing operation, not a waste plant. Carbotura funds it, builds it, owns it, and runs it. Glasgow City Council does not invest any money.

No capital investment. No construction debt. No operating costs. Glasgow's only financial commitment is the Beneficiation Fee — a per-tonne Beneficiation Fee for delivering materials to the facility, set below Glasgow's current disposal costs. Everything else is Carbotura's responsibility. If the facility underperforms, that's Carbotura's problem, not Glasgow's.

The Circular Royalty™ is a monthly payment from Carbotura to Glasgow City Council. It starts 13 months after the facility opens — so there's a first year where Glasgow pays the Beneficiation Fee but hasn't received any royalty yet (separate transactions; royalty pre-launch). After that, rolling monthly payments begin at a rate of 120% of the original Beneficiation Fee per tonne. The rate goes up by 1 percentage point every year. From Year 2 onward, the per-tonne Royalty Glasgow receives exceeds the per-tonne Fee it pays (separate transactions per the Separate Transaction Principle), and the spread grows every year until Year 30. The exact monthly amount depends on the Beneficiation Fee, which is confirmed in the Waste Study.

Yes — designed to be significantly better. Today, Glasgow's residual materials go to incineration at the Fortum-operated South Clyde Energy Centre (SCEC), which generates CO₂. The ACM manufacturing process is designed for near-zero emissions, near-zero residual, and no discharge. At 500 TPD (Configuration A), the facility is designed to avoid approximately 82,500 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year (per Registry §I). These are designed-for figures from Carbotura's platform — they'll be independently verified at the Waste Study stage. Glasgow's household recycling rate is approximately 44% (SEPA 2024), which is excellent. This project handles what's left in a genuinely better way.

Glasgow's current contract for sending residual waste to the South Clyde Energy Centre (SCEC) runs until around 2040–41. After that, Glasgow has no confirmed plan for where its materials go. Building the replacement infrastructure takes time — roughly 10 to 12 years from the start of the Waste Study to full Phase Expanded operation. That means the decision process needs to start now to ensure Glasgow has something in place before 2040, not after. The first step — authorising a Waste Study — doesn't commit Glasgow to anything. It just opens the door. The longer Glasgow waits, the less time it has to plan.

Around 175 direct manufacturing jobs at Configuration A (500 TPD) — skilled technical and operational roles at the facility itself. Combined with indirect and supply chain employment, the total impact is estimated at around 788 jobs at Configuration A, scaling to approximately 3,150 jobs at Configuration C (2,000 TPD). These are permanent, local positions in Glasgow — not construction or temporary roles. These figures are estimates based on Carbotura's standard 100 TPD module scaling module scaling; they'll be confirmed at Waste Study.).

Carbotura builds factories, not waste facilities. That distinction isn't just language — it determines which permits apply, which investors can participate, and whether the 30-year royalty structure is financially viable. Carbotura is filing a federal petition with the EPA confirming its process is manufacturing, not waste treatment. If a local or state authority were to classify the facility as a waste operation — even informally — Carbotura would not be able to proceed. The investment model requires manufacturing status. This is one reason Carbotura works closely with communities before committing capital: to confirm the regulatory path is clear.