The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) today (Tuesday 18 May) begins consultation on its plans for a national waste strategy for Scotland.
Waste, and how we dispose of it, is an issue which society generally fails to recognise as one of concern. Around 14 million tonnes of waste, including 2.4 million tonnes of household waste, is produced in Scotland each year, and at present about 90% of it goes into landfill sites. If Scotland is to become a sustainable society, this dependence on landfill needs to be reduced and alternative ways of dealing with waste need to be put in place.
The strategy SEPA is now putting out to consultation suggests alternatives to landfill and poses a number of key questions about how the issues can be addressed. SEPA’s aim is to promote integrated waste management systems for Scotland. This would include such things as waste minimisation (not producing the waste in the first place), recovery of waste through reuse, recycling, or energy recovery and the development of clean technologies.
Donald Macfarlane. Head of Waste Policy at SEPA said:
"We want to provide Scotland, for the first time, with an integrated strategy for dealing with waste. We are consulting with a wide range of people, including the waste industry and local authorities, about the strategy. We hope that our consultation document will stimulate the wider debate that is needed if we are to drive the issues forward and set the scene for real progress."
A copy of the Strategy’s Executive Summary is attached. Copies of the full strategy are available on request from Laura Muir by email or on 01786 457700 ext 229.
NATIONAL WASTE STRATEGY, SCOTLAND: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
1. SEPA has a duty to prepare the National Waste Strategy for Scotland as a requirement of the EC Framework Directive on Waste (75/442/EEC as amended by 91/156/EEC). Member states are required to prepare waste management plans to attain the objectives of Articles 3, 4 and 5 of the Directive, these objectives being:
- to encourage the prevention or reduction of waste
- to encourage recovery of waste
- to encourage its use as a source of energy
- to ensure that it is recovered or disposed of without endangering human health or harming the environment
- to establish an adequate network of disposal installations
Current practices and future direction
2. Landfill is currently the disposal option for over 90% of waste arisings in Scotland. Landfill will always have a role to play but the purpose of the strategy is to ensure significant progress towards more sustainable waste management practices such as waste minimisation, re-use, recycling and energy recovery. Recent SEPA figures suggest that a slight decrease in waste arisings in 1998 was due to a reduction in construction and demolition waste.
3. The four key principles to be adopted in moving waste management forward in a sustainable way are the proximity principle and self sufficiency, the precautionary principle, the polluter pays and the Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO).
Drivers and constraints
4. There are competing drivers and constraints which serve to progress or hinder the goals of the strategy. Drivers include policy and legislative change, in particular the requirements of the EC Directive on Landfill. The key players are SEPA, central government, the waste industry, local authorities, waste producers and the voluntary or not-for-profit sector. Technical innovation, allied with good management and business skills will provide opportunities for innovated and imaginative solutions.
5. Constraints include the topography and demography of Scotland, a culture of mixed waste disposal, lack of investment in the management of waste, lack of application of the ‘polluter pays’ principle and existing contract arrangements. Poor information on waste arisings and poor waste minimisation practices, a lack of integrated waste transport systems and the current poor development of recycling markets also constrain the development of an integrated approach to waste management.
Making it happen
6. To achieve the objectives of the strategy, SEPA will use a number of different tools. These include:
7. The strategy also includes key targets derived from the Landfill Directive and proposes a range of other voluntary targets. The Directive sets out to reduce the biodegradable municipal waste going to landfill by 25% of 1995 levels by 2006 and by 65% of 1995 levels by 2016. The implications of the Directive’s proposed targets are substantial, immediate and need to be recognised by all parties. They imply that between 3 and 11 major treatment plants of some form have to be developed in Scotland during the period 2006 to 2016.
8. The strategy recognises the need to take into account local circumstances. This is catered for by the proposal to develop Waste Strategy Areas which will allow local authorities, industry and local enterprise companies within these areas to put forward their particular needs and develop local solutions compatible with the strategy.
Action plan and timetable
9. A timetable and action plan for taking the strategy forward has been drawn up, A key part of this is the proposal to form a Strategy Link Group administered by SEPA which will work in partnership with other organisations to monitor and guide the strategy’s development.
Commentary
10. Waste is a problem caused by the whole of society and it will only be through society recognising and understanding its role that solutions will be achieved. The strategy takes into account the underlying principles of sustainable development and seeks to change the relationship between resource use - process - waste generation from being linear to being a closed loop.
11. The National Waste Strategy : Scotland has the potential to make a real difference to the way waste is understood and managed in Scotland. It encompasses many exciting concepts and seeks to harness the potential for change which must happen. External drivers will force the pace of change but the waste management industry in Scotland, in its widest sense, is equal to challenges and opportunities which it is about to face.
12. SEPA will use its powers of regulation to ensure that human health and the environment are safeguarded, but these alone are not enough to ensure that the targets will be met. The draft strategy sets out what SEPA expects others to do. It provides a framework against which the waste management industry can take innovative decisions through requiring proper consideration and planning for the management of waste. It is designed to ensure that all parties understand clearly and unambiguously the role they have to play and the major changes which will be necessary in attitude and practice if the strategy is to succeed. There is no option but change.
© SEPA 1999