What types of waste do you put in your household bin? What would encourage you to recycle more? Do you know what happens to the domestic waste in your area?

These are just some of the questions 250 Edinburgh residents are being asked this week by the Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG). Information generated from door-to-door surveys will be used in the development of an Area Waste Plan that is being co-ordinated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) in partnership with the Lothians and Borders Waste Strategy Area Group. Similar surveys will be carried out in other local authority areas.

The questions are straightforward and to help assess the level of public understanding and their attitude towards waste issues, no prompts will be given for potential answers. For example: Are you aware of any ways you could reduce waste production at home? Potential answers include using refillable containers, repairing broken and damaged equipment and the bulk buying of food. This is important as to make the final Area Waste Plan appropriate to Edinburgh, the results of the survey must reflect with reasonable accuracy the public's understanding of the issues.

Joanna Muse, SEPA Area Waste Strategy Co-ordinator for Lothians and the Borders said:

"Identifying the public's understanding of waste issues is crucial to the development of the Area Waste Plan. The survey will enable us to identify any issues the public may have about waste minimisation, their knowledge of the recycling resources currently available and how they make decisions about the disposal of household waste when products have reached the end of their natural life. These views are important as they will directly shape the Area Waste Plan for the Lothians and Borders and help provide the best option possible."

As well as contributing to the Plan, the information generated from the survey will be used to develop appropriate promotional material for subsequent campaigns on reducing, re-using and recycling.

ENDS

Notes

1. Joanna Muse, SEPA Area Waste Strategy Co-ordinator for Lothian and the Borders, is available for interview. Please contact Louise Fyfe, SEPA Regional Public Relations Officer, on 0131 273 7274 to arrange.

2. SEPA has a duty under the Environment Act 1995 to produce a national waste strategy for Scotland that will be developed through the implementation of 11 Area Waste Plans for the whole of Scotland. These aim to show how waste will be dealt with for the next 20 years and will ensure that Scotland meets the requirements of a variety of EU directives. The plans aim to reduce the volume and hazard of waste, increase recycling and re-use, and reduce the dependence on landfill. This should reduce environmental impacts whilst creating new jobs, better use of resources and a cleaner local environment.

3. SWAG was established to plan and deliver public waste campaigns throughout Scotland. It has a focus on landfill and contributes to the reduction of waste that goes to landfill. It is, in effect, a small task group made up of the major players in household waste - SEPA, COSLA, the Institute of Waste Management, Friends of the Earth, Keep Scotland Beautiful and the Scottish Executive.

4. In Scotland we are heavily reliant on the landfilling (tipping into holes) of waste. Household recycling levels were 5 per cent in 2000, putting us at the bottom of the European league of recycling.

5. Lothians and Borders Waste Strategy Area Group is made up of the City of Edinburgh Council, East Lothian Council, Midlothian Council, West Lothian Council, Scottish Borders Council, Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothians, Scottish Borders Enterprise, Midlothian Enterprise Trust, LEEP and the Scottish Environmental Services Association.