Now is your chance to make your views heard about your rubbish and how it affects the environment. The Tayside Area Waste Group have published their Waste Issues Paper which is intended to stimulate discussion about the future direction of rubbish management in the region and outlines three possible options.

Anybody living or working in Tayside who has an interest in the way rubbish is produced, treated, recycled and disposed of and wishes their views to be considered should take this opportunity to comment.

The paper doesn’t provide definitive solutions to dealing with Tayside’s waste problems nor does it seek to provide detailed technical or financial information on the options available. However, what the paper does do is outline those options which would be possible for Tayside.

Colin Anderson, chair of Tayside Waste Strategy Area Group and Team Leader at SEPA’s Arbroath Office said: “This is a public consultation document and we want and need local people to respond. Excellent partnership working and the information gathered from local groups and individuals is crucial to enable us to make decisions on the best option for rubbish.”

Options up for debate in the Area Waste Plan include:

• Separate council collection of green and recyclable household rubbish.
  
• Dramatically increasing the amount of composting.
  
• The building of an aneorobic digestion plant which breaks the waste down to a fuel gas and a compost.
  
• Another plant which burns waste or turns it into a gas fuel which is burnt to produce electricity.
  
• More awareness raising of recycling options and the environmental consequences of continuing the status quo.
  

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• Copies of the Tayside Waste Issues Paper are available from SEPA Perth Office on 01738 627989 and from council offices and libraries. A copy of the document can also be downloaded from the SEPA website: click here
  
• Ian Buchanan, SEPA Area Waste Strategy Co-ordinator for Tayside, is available for interview. Please contact Louise Fyfe, SEPA Regional Public Relations Officer, on 0131 449 7296 to arrange.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.